Blue Bamboo: Japanese Tales of Fantasy

But happiness is being able to hope, however faintly, for happiness. So, at least, we must believe if we are to live in the world of today.

No. You won't do. You've treated me nicely, yes, but only because you find me curious and amusing. It made me feel so lonely, somehow... I'm really just a foolish and useless person.

It would seem that the more irresponsible and crafty one is, the more likely one is to have a talent for storytelling.

When you find yourself looking ridiculous, reasoning isn't worth a damn.

Such it is for those in the grips of misfortune: declarations of support and sympathy, rather than providing comfort, may merely increase the victim's pain.

Any connoisseur knows you've got to be drunk to really enjoy a good romance.

You’ve treated me nicely, yes, but only because you find me curious and amusing. It’s made me feel so lonely, somehow.

A life free of lies! Ah, but that, too, was, by definition, a lie. Surely a lie already dwelled in the heart of anyone who sought to make such distinctions and stand in judgment.

I have suffered much at the hands of human society. Forgive me if I seem overly suspicious.

One lies to seek a bit of relief from a ponderous, suffocating reality, but the liar, like the drinker, gradually comes to need larger and larger doses. The lies become blacker and more complex, and they mesh and rub together until in the end they shine with the luster of truth.

It seems that when people are in a state of euphoria, they don’t always notice the suffering of others.

Even if one is not “qualified to be loved,” one is eternally “qualified to love.” To seek only the joy of being adored is to surrender to savagery and ignorance.

It seems, regrettably, that not even genius can overcome the debilitating effects of a mild fever.

The five brothers and sisters, and I myself, have gradually grown more adult, more polite, more guarded—have become, in short, “members of society”—and when we do on occasion meet, it’s not the least bit fun.

I’ve been subjected to ridicule and derision every day of my life. In spite of which, did I not take courage and boldly present myself at that examination? Yes! Only to fail miserably... In a world like this, where the brazen, the shameless, the evil-hearted alone prosper, a weak and penniless scholar like myself is destined forever to be a failure and a laughingstock.

Poverty and scholarship have always gone hand in hand, it seems, and one can’t help but wonder why that might be.

The recognition of any reality begins with trust.

death was one thing but he couldn’t bear the thought of letting good wine go to waste

The recognition of any reality begins with trust. And the source of all trust is love for one's fellow man. - The Mermaid and the Samurai

Without mutual respect, there can be no true nuptial bond.

There was in his nature a tendency to display a taste for fairness and justice—not the “fairness and justice” that politicians are forever carrying on about, but fairness and justice in the true, original sense of the words. As a consequence, the people of Mishima regarded him as a troublemaker and kept their distance.

When one’s life begins to unravel, one is tempted, sadly enough, to cling to the thread of prophecy.

The problem with tradition is that it can cause even an error of great magnitude to go unnoticed

Poverty and scholarship, it would seem, have always gone hand in hand, and one can't help but wonder why that should be.

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