Chihiro Sengoku — memorable quote from The Pet Girl of Sakurasou

“Every society places the world in order, by the concept of opposites: inside and outside, religious and secular, celestial and worldly. The opposing concepts organize the world as it is today, but none of those can be distinctly separated. There is always a grey area where it is ambiguous.”

“If you could see everything but couldn't change any of it, or if you could live in freedom in darkness... Which do you think is more fortunate? I think it might not be that bad living in the dark, remembering the light.”

“A prison, you say? You think you'll be free if you go to the world above? A girl like you can never be free no matter where you go. After all, we humans are apes put in a cage called Earth. There is no difference between the world above and the world below. The only difference is which is bigger or smaller. People who pout about how confining the cage is can never be happy. They live their lives only seeing the iron bars. A true lack of freedom is when you cage your soul.”

“Some questions with no answers cannot be answered even by those who live forever. Yet, the absence of a correct answer does not mean the question cannot be answered. If you want to know how I felt about the complete ban on some culture and art that I could not understand, was not interested in, or could not accept, in the name of preventing the violations of others’ rights or other trumped up charges, I believe that would be taking us onto the road of discriminating against others. If we define culture as that which is healthy or humane, and defend that decision in the name of justice, once any part of that system collapses, it will cause an unimaginable number of problems for society. For instance, if I drew a line in the middle and erased one side, the next day, a new line will appear in the middle of the side that is left. I think suppressing the instincts and thoughts of the human spirit is bad. The desire for purity and wholesomeness, when taken to an extreme, is harmful.”

“Trying to change someone else's thinking is sheer arrogance.”