Literature is like a journey.
When life gets tough and tiring, when our worries deepen, we tend to go far away.
And in the places where you go on your journey, you find great comfort and the strength to live again.
You may even discover a clue to a new solution.
Sometimes, instead of traveling, why not read literature and travel to people whose lives are different from yours?
I hope you can experience unexpected comfort and expand your life choices in a place where time and space are different.
There are no set answers in life.
So, rather than spending time wandering around trying to find the right answer, we need more time to read many lives and think about what kind of life we ​​want to live.
So, I hope that while you are reading this book, you can find time to admire the beauty of things, feel sorrow at the sorrowful things, and cry out loud at the sad things.
I believe that everyone has had a time when they loved literature.
If you have forgotten about literature for a while in your busy life, I hope that you will fall in love with it again through this book.
I sincerely hope that you will love your life more.
--- p.18-19, from “Starting_If you come to love life more through literature”

Wherever you are now, I hope you take the time to fill yourself with pure happiness.
Whether short or long.
To that end, how about we embark on a long journey of life together, enriching our finite lives with the things that make them so?
In the movie "Dead Poets Society," Mr. Keating says, "Medicine, law, business, and technology are all noble pursuits and necessary for sustaining life, but poetry, beauty, romance, and love are the very things we live for."
you're right.
We have no choice but to struggle to survive these days, but if, even in the midst of all this, you can dream, even for a moment, of a world filled with beauty, romance, and love through literature, then I could not ask for more.
--- p.70-71, from “Why People Who Have a Reason to Live Are Happy”

This novel tells us that in the turbulent lives of youth, only 'love' can provide salvation.
For the youth of that time, nothing was as precious and meaningful as love.
If you are a young person reading this, I think you are probably thinking of the face of someone you love right now.
If there's a face that comes to mind vividly, why not tell them right now that you love them? You can run to them, say it out loud, or send it in writing.
If there's one thing you'll ever need when you're lost and lost in the aftermath of a breakup, it's his love.

--- p.77, from “The Courage to Live Willingly as Myself”

“Let’s live like the old fisherman in ‘The Old Man and the Sea.’” I sometimes say this to my students.
Some people stake their lives on a grand ideal that they aspire to, but most of us don't.
We can become frustrated and discouraged when we can't even achieve our small daily goals.
But you must not stop dreaming.
Even if we fail, the attitude toward life that we fiercely desired is engraved in our hearts.
That attitude and experience provide great nourishment for living life.
All the time you put into working towards your goals adds up to give you another dream.
Like an old man standing tall in the vast ocean.
If we live the life given to us as best we can, if we enjoy the process and take the lessons learned to heart, I believe that regardless of the outcome, we are never losers.
--- p.133-136, from “So that your tomorrow doesn’t fall apart”

We are always exposed to romantic narratives about love through the media, so we are familiar with those narratives.
We often fall into the illusion that love is fateful, passionate, and perfect.
But love itself cannot be the purpose of our lives.
Love alone cannot fully and permanently satisfy one another.
Poet Kim Su-yeong also talks about the nature of love that is destined to crack in his poem “Love.”
(…) Yes.
Perhaps all love has its cracks in its face.
Like the anxiety on the face of a lover who taught me unchanging love.
As poet Kim Su-yeong puts it, it 'goes out and comes back to life in an instant.'
But perhaps it is in the process of enduring that anxiety and foreboding that we learn true love.
I believe that what we call true love is something that we realize after going beyond that stage, and I ponder over all the love stories in the world.
After all, we are beings who cannot live without love.
--- p.193-194, from “Because We Are Beings Who Cannot Live Without Love”

It seems as if the weight of the harsh life Hans had to endure for over 9,000 days while forgetting, or rather burying, Conradin is fully conveyed.
Misunderstanding someone may be more difficult than being misunderstood.
So, I hope that you will feel sorry for someone who misunderstands you, and at the same time, I hope that one day you will be able to understand the person you misunderstand without any doubts.
Whether through faith, self-esteem, timing, and communication, I sincerely hope that the direction will be one that brings you peace of mind.
--- p.207-208, from “I hope your mind is at ease”

One of the novels that always comes to mind when talking about crossroads of choice is Lee Gwang-su's "Heartlessness."
This novel is the first modern full-length novel and a monumental enlightenment novel that reflects the ideas of new literature.
Because it is a novel with great significance in literary history, it is actually frequently discussed in lectures.
This novel features characters who break away from the stereotypical image of Joseon society and honestly reveal their inner conflicts.
If the protagonists of previous literary works were stereotypical figures who followed Confucian ideology and the formula of punishing evil and promoting good, the protagonists of "Heartlessness" show the appearance of modern humans who agonize and waver in the face of their fate.
Of course, the relationship between the main character, Hyung-sik, and the three women is woven as an enlightening relationship between a teacher and a student.
However, the reason why this novel cannot be confined to the framework of an "Enlightenment novel" that is memorized in class is because all four characters actively learn to determine their own love and fate.
--- p.259-260, from “Where Should We Go When We Stand at a Crossroads?”

Now that I'm a grown man, I have a greater empathy for the masters of this planet.
When I was young, I couldn't understand them at all, like the Little Prince, but now I feel a little sad when I think that they are people I can meet anywhere around me.
I often look back and wonder if I am living the same life as them.
The good news is that now that I'm an adult and have lost the innocence of the little prince, I've finally come to appreciate the value of learning.
Ironically, we all learn about life little by little.
That's probably why "The Little Prince" from our childhood and "The Little Prince" today have different meanings for us.
And that is probably why The Little Prince became an immortal classic.

--- p.334, from “Things That Never Age”