60 Ken Kaneki Quotes on Grit and Resilience

Create a stronger version of yourself and build your courage through these top Ken Kaneki quotes.

Ken Kaneki is the main protagonist of the Tokyo Ghoul anime series. He is a human who turned into a half-ghoul after an operation to save his life.

Throughout the series, Ken Kaneki went through many kinds of pain and suffering that changed him inside and out.

He struggled a lot to continue to live, but he managed it all by staying strong. Find out what he has to say about life by reading the complete collection below.

Let’s get started.

And don’t miss out these Itachi Uchiha quotes and Sasuke Uchiha quotes.

Best Ken Kaneki Quotes

1. “I don’t care about taking the side of those I cannot see. I fight for those close to me, and it just so happens that they’re mostly ghouls.”

2. “Never trust anyone too much. Remember the devil was once an angel.” 

3. “I’m not the protagonist of a novel or anything. I’m just a college student who likes to read like you could find anywhere.”

4. “I’m begging you, don’t make me a killer!” 

5. “You think something like that would hurt after all I’ve been through?” 

6. “You’re wrong. It’s not the world that’s messed up. It’s those of us in it. Yes, some ghouls walk a path that leaves sorrow in their wake, but just like humans, we can choose a different path altogether. We have a lot to learn, both your kind and mine.”

7. “I was wrong. I wasn’t eating ghouls. I’m the one who was being eaten.” 

8. “We need to stop fighting and start talking. Because when it comes to the state of the world, you can’t point your finger at ghouls or humans. We’re all to blame.” 

9. “Donato has to keep proving himself. He wants to prove just how valuable he is. Isn’t that the case with you as well? Because you are the same as Donato. All you’re doing is indulging in this twisted self-value that you have for yourself, and if you don’t, you won’t last.” 

10. “All the liabilities in this world are due to the inadequacies of the person involved.”

Also read: Anime Quotes, Funny Anime Quotes

Sentimental Ken Kaneki Quotes

11. “Pain is your friend. Pain is your ally.”

12. “The pain you feel today will be the strength you’ll have tomorrow.” 

13. “I led me by the hand as if to fill the niches in the memories in my oozing brain fluid. Without even a destination, we kept walking. Disgusting clouds were floating in the sky. I already know what will happen to me the next time I wake up.”

14. “Why is it that the beautiful things are entwined more deeply with death than with life?”

15. “What’s wrong isn’t me. What’s wrong is the world!”

16. “Sometimes, good people make bad choices. It doesn’t mean they are bad people. It means they’re human.”

17. “It’s better to be hurt than to hurt others. Nice people can be happy with just that.”

18. “We have to break a chain of grief.” 

19. “I don’t want someone to see the good in me. I want someone who sees the bad and still wants me.”

20. “I keep it all inside because I’d rather the pain destroy me than everyone else.” 

Ken Kaneki Quotes That Are Full of Power and Emotion

21. “Pain tells you when you have been wounded badly.”

22. “As my fingers and toes re-grew like fingernails or hair over, and over, and over, and over, and over again, every single time I got the feeling that I truly, truly, truly was a monster.”

23. “I won’t forgive anyone who threatens the peace in my life.” 

24. “Never kick me when I’m down because when I get up, you’re f*ck*d.”

25. “I have to learn by experiencing things myself. That’s all I can do.”

26. “But you know what the best thing about pain is? It tells you you’re not dead yet!”

27. “Anyone who tries to take my friends from me will get no mercy.”

28. “Sometimes, you’re confronted with the ugly parts of yourself that you don’t want to see, but books can also tell you a lot about the things you didn’t notice when you’re just trying to get through somehow.” 

29. “This world is survival of the fittest.”

30. “My severe injuries had healed, and the sweet taste of blood coated my mouth. I kept walking, my goal vague, trying to dispel the building unease in my chest.”

31. “I want to be a bridge, telling ghouls how people feel and letting people know what ghouls think and feel. Because there’s nothing but hatred between the two groups now, but if each had an understanding of the other, I think that could change. Even if my presence is unwanted, I still want to be involved with both humans and ghouls.”

32. “If you want to curse something, curse your own weakness.”

33. “I will carry on the last wish of the previous king, and create a world where ghouls and humans can understand each other.”

34. “I won’t pull back, I will press forward, like a centipede.”

35. “In this world, the strong devour the weak. Who are the strong? I am. I f*ck*ng am!”

Deep Ken Kaneki Quotes About Life

36. “Human relationships are chemical reactions. If you have a reaction, then you can never return back to your previous state of being.”

37. “I’m tired of not being able to do anything.”

38. “Upon entering an open area was the scent of rotting flowers, and in the middle of the flowerbed, he stood. Without anyone saying a thing, without his name given, like an unsolved puzzle falling into place by itself, just by seeing that figure, I understood exactly who I faced. The CCG’s reaper. The undefeated ghoul investigator. A cold, vivid gaze. There stood the God of Death.”

39. “I know you may not believe this, but I’m human, and yet, I want to eat this so bad, I can’t help it. But if I do, I won’t be human anymore.” 

40. “I think what’s necessary is the ‘right distance.’ Instead of mutually tramping on each others’ existence, we should just respect each other a little more.”

41. “I wanna be nice, but everyone annoys me.” 

42. “Eventually, you will break and become useless. Once that happens, you’ll break and become discarded.”

43. “No matter how I tried to rouse my will to fight with hatred, more than sorrow, more than rage, the emotion that arose within me was despair because ‘my turn’ was next.”

44. “If for argument’s sake, you were to write a story with me in the lead role, it would certainly be a tragedy.”

45. “Why was it that I was seeing beauty in death rather than life? Strangely, I thought he was beautiful. Disoriented, I had failed to comprehend the scene before my eyes. It was not anything like flowers but a large amount of death. Had he done this alone? It’s a lie.”

46. “Fiction books give the reader a chance to step away from their own reality and into the shoes of the characters, and they show you a world that isn’t the one you already know. And sometimes, the story’s not so different from your own, and it lets you get closer to your own feelings. So when you close a book you’ve just finished reading and return to reality, all the pain and sadness you couldn’t put into words before are still there on those pages, and that can be comforting.”

47. “Cain used to be seen as evil, you know. Well, I mean, he can be understood as being ‘evil’ now, too. But if you just think about Cain, you can kind of see that he had to do what he did to be able to carry on, I think. It would’ve been unbearable for him, you know?”

48. “In exchange for the pleasure of living as a person that ghouls can have, we receive this instead. We’re overwhelmed by our appetites. I understand the feeling of sinking into pleasure. In some ways, it’s only natural that some ghouls like Rize-san exist. However, I’m not going to lose sight of myself. That’s my way of fighting.”

49. “The fear of waking up and knowing nothing. Do you know what that’s like? How I can only cling onto what’s given to me? How? I don’t even know my own parents. Where did I even come from? Who am I?” 

50. “As soon as I began to think that somewhere inside me, I myself began wishing for it. Wishing that I’d live.”

Ken Kaneki Quotes About His Experiences

51. “I want to give my life for someone else.”

52. “Why? Why am I doing this? I was wrong to eat that meat after all. That was what I thought, and I desperately looked for another way. Even so, this is not what I want. This is not the way! Human meat, there is no way I can eat it. How can I possibly eat it because I’m human! I’m different from you, monsters!”

53. “It’s because we’re the same. Isolated from society, able to consume a few specific things. They remind me of myself. I really believed I was a kind-hearted human, but I was mistaken. There were a few humans that were important to me, but I couldn’t care less about the majority of them.”

54. “I’m not that much of a pushover, greenhorn.”

55. “I am the One-Eyed King.”

Ken Kaneki Quotes That Are Full of Sadness

56. “I know there are ghouls who only see humans as targets to be preyed upon, and on the other hand, there are humans who have decided that ghouls are only inhuman monsters, but I don’t think either of those is correct.”

57. “That’s who we are. Steal and be stolen. Imprison and be imprisoned. Follow and be followed. Do and be done. Affirm and negate over and over. We fight ceaselessly to save ourselves from loss.”

58. “Black and blue, turning and over-turning the things I’d chosen countless times, forever repeating the same actions. Ungainly, awkward, indecisive, weak, endlessly useless. That is what I am.”

59. “Furuta, I was the sort of human you’d find anywhere. The kind that just loves reading. But on that fateful day with Rize, I was sundered from the human world, and everything began to change. My life was threatened. I was horrifically tortured, unable to achieve what I wanted. I even lost, but I found a new place I belonged.”

60. “Life is sad, empty. But despite knowing we will one day be bereft, despite knowing we will one day disappear, we still strive in wretched ways. We still wish to be beautiful.”

Where Do You Draw Strength in the Toughest Times?

Ken Kaneki experienced a tragic life. His love for his friends and family motivated him to be stronger for them. Even to the point of sacrificing his life, Kaneki did everything he could to protect his loved ones from danger.

There are a lot of lessons that the anime series will teach us. But the striking characteristic of the main protagonist is his resiliency. His experience is undoubtedly maddening and will drive you to the point of insanity.

However, his love is stronger than any battles he fought in life. It is admirable to know how friends and family can fuel us even if reality hits us too much. We hope that you become inspired to be more assertive in facing life.

Are you a fan of Tokyo Ghoul? Which Ken Kaneki quote is your favorite? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.