These Ken Kaneki quotes from Tokyo Ghoul reveal his internal struggle with his identity and depression.

Just who is Ken Kaneki? Well, he is the main protagonist of Tokyo Ghoul, a Japanese dark fantasy manga series.

Ken was a human who studied Japanese Literature at Kamii University and lived a relatively normal life.

All of that changed when Rize’s kakuhou, a sac-like organ that is only present in ghouls, is transplanted into him.

This turned him into a One-Eyed Ghoul. He learned to live as a Ghoul and earned the name Eyepatch.

Author Ishida Sui created the series that chronicles Kaneki’s life struggles while he tries to figure out where he belongs now that he is not a human and is fighting to accept his new reality as a ghoul. He is captured by Aogiri Tree, which prompts him to finally accept his ghoul side.

Ken puts together a team with the goal of protecting the ones he cares about and “plucking out” people who threaten his new home and way of life.

Keep reading these Ken Kaneki quotes to learn more about the main protagonist of Tokyo Ghoul.

Don’t forget to also check out these anime quotes to motivate & inspire.

Best Ken Kaneki quotes about ghouls and death

1. “I’m begging you, don’t make me a killer!” — Ken Kaneki

2. “The pain you feel today will be the strength you’ll have tomorrow.” — Ken Kaneki

3. “I was wrong. I wasn’t eating ghouls. I’m the one who was being eaten.” — Ken Kaneki

4. “All the liabilities in this world are due to the inadequacies of the person involved.” — Ken Kaneki

5. “Never trust anyone too much. Remember, the devil was once an angel.” — Ken Kaneki

6. “Had he done this alone?… It’s a lie… Koma… Irimi… After all that… 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.” — Ken Kaneki

7. “You’re wrong. It’s not the world that’s messed up; it’s those of us in it.” — Ken Kaneki

Tokyo Ghoul’s Ken Kaneki quotes filled with life advice

8. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

9. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

10. “It’s better to be hurt than to hurt others. Nice people can be happy with just that.” — Ken Kaneki

11. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

12. “Sometimes good people make bad choices. It doesn’t mean they are bad people. It means they’re human.” — Ken Kaneki

13. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

14. “We have to break a chain of grief.” — Ken Kaneki

15. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

16. “Donato has to keep proving himself. He wants to prove just how valuable he is. Isn’t that the case with you as well?” — Ken Kaneki

Cool Ken Kaneki quotes about himself

17. “If you were to write a story with me in the lead role, it would certainly be… a tragedy.” — Ken Kaneki

18. “What’s wrong isn’t me, what’s wrong is the world!” — Ken Kaneki

19. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

20. “I have to learn by experiencing things myself.. that’s all I can do.” — Ken Kaneki

21. “Anyone who tries to take my friends from me will get no mercy.” — Ken Kaneki

22. “I’m tired of not being able to do anything.” — Ken Kaneki

23. “I wanna be nice, but everyone annoys me.” — Ken Kaneki

24. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

25. “I keep it all inside because I’d rather the pain destroy me than everyone else.” — Ken Kaneki

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26. “Never kick me when I’m down, because when I get up… you’re f*cked.” — Ken Kaneki

27. “This world is survival of the fittest. The strong eat.’ ‘Who is strong?’ I am. Me.” — Ken Kaneki

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

29. “Take me by the hand, as if to fill the niches in the memories in my brain fluid. Without even hesitating, we kept walking. Nasty clouds floated in the sky, I know it will happen to me the next time I wake up.” — Ken Kaneki

30. “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. But… if for argument’s sake, you were to write a story with me in the lead role, it would certainly be… a tragedy.” — Ken Kaneki

Ken Kaneki quotes From Tokyo Ghoul about pain and life

31. “Pain tells you when you have been wounded badly.” — Ken Kaneki

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

33. “Pain is your friend, pain is your ally.” — Ken Kaneki

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

35. “Why is it that the beautiful things are entwined more deeply with death than with life?” — Ken Kaneki

36. “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…” — Ken Kaneki

37. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

38. “Eventually, you will break and become useless, once that happens, you’ll break and become discarded.” — Ken Kaneki

39. “I won’t forgive anyone who threatens the peace in my life.” — Ken Kaneki

40. “You think something like that would hurt, after all, I’ve been through?” — Ken Kaneki

41. “I already know what will happen to me the next time I wake up.” – Ken Kaneki

42. “I won’t pull back, I will press forward, like a centipede.” – Ken Kaneki

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

44. “I’m not that much of a pushover, greenhorn.” – Ken Kaneki

45. “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?” — Ken Kaneki

More Ken Kaneki quotes

46. “If you want to curse something, curse your own weakness.” — Ken Kaneki

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

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

49. “I want to be a bridge, telling ghouls how people feel and letting people know what ghouls think and feel.” — Ken Kaneki

50. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

51. “Why was it that I was seeing beauty in death rather than life? Strangely, I thought he was beautiful.” — Ken Kaneki

52. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

53. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

54. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

55. “In exchange for the pleasure of living as a person that ghouls can have, we receive this instead. We’re overwhelmed by our appetites” — Ken Kaneki

Sad Ken Kaneki Quotes

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

57. “I want to give my life for someone else.” – Ken Kaneki

58. “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.” – Ken Kaneki

59. “It’s because we’re the same. Isolated from society, able to consume a few specific things. They remind me of myself.” – Ken Kaneki

60. “I am the One-Eyed King.” – Ken Kaneki

61. “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.” – Ken Kaneki

62. “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.” – Ken Kaneki

63. “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.” – Ken Kaneki

64. “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.” – Ken Kaneki

65. “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.” – Ken Kaneki

66. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

67. “Because you are the same as Donato. All you’re doing is indulging in this twisted self-value that you have to yourself. And if you don’t, you won’t last.” — Ken Kaneki

68. “Even if my presence is unwanted, I still want to be involved with both humans and ghouls.” — Ken Kaneki

69. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

70. “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.” — Ken Kaneki

71. “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!” – Ken Kaneki

72. “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.” – Ken Kaneki

Which of these Ken Kaneki quotes is your favorite?

What is Ken Kaneki like? Fans of the series know Kaneki is a gentle soul who rarely ever harms another person unless he feels forced.

He has a profound fear of being alone and recognizes that he will have no one if he hurts people around him.

The thought of being alone haunts him and is a big factor in his protective nature. This is one thing that makes the series easy to relate to.

Kaneki undergoes several personality shifts as the series progresses. When he fully accepts his ghoul side and allows it to consume his human side, his changing hair color notes the change.

One part of his personality that doesn’t change is his love of books. Throughout the entire series, Kaneki is an avid reader. This is likely because of a memory of his late father, and their shared love of reading.

What do you think of the Tokyo Ghoul series and Ken Kaneki? Share your thoughts and other favorite Ken Kaneki quotes and lines in the comment section below.