Quotes from The Decay of the Angel

Yukio Mishima ·  236 pages

Rating: (2.3K votes)


“كل ما لديه حقاً كان شعوراً جارفاً بالحماقة وبالابتذال, وقد ذاب متحولاً إلى رتابة. كم هي هائلة تجليات العادي والمبتذل! ابتذال التأنق, ابتذال العاج, ابتذال القداسة, ابتذال الجنون, ابتذال ذوي المعرفة الواسعة, ابتذال الأكاديمي المدعي, الابتذال المغناج, ابتذال القطة الفارسية, ابتذال الملوك والشحاذين والمعتوهين والفراشات.”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from The Decay of the Angel


“كان الاضطرار إلى الحياة أكثر سواداً من أشد ضروب السواد افتقاراً للمرح, أن يضطر كل يوم لرؤية رجل يسعى لفهم أعمق شيء بداخله, وينجح في ذلك.”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from The Decay of the Angel


“History knew the truth. History was the most inhuman product of humanity.It scooped up the whole of human will and, like the goddess Kali in Calcutta, dripped blood from its mouth as it bit and crunched.”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from The Decay of the Angel


“The perfectly ordinary girl and the great philosopher are alike: for both, the smallest triviality can become the vision that wipes out the world.”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from The Decay of the Angel


“There is nothing in the least special about you. I guarantee you a long life. You have not been chosen by the gods, you will never be at one with your acts, you do not have in you the green light to flash like young lightning with the speed of the gods and destroy yourself. All you have is a certain premature senility. Your life will be suited for coupon-clipping. Nothing more.”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from The Decay of the Angel



“No, Mr. Honda, I have forgotten none of the blessings that were mine in the other world. But I fear I have never heard the name Kiyoaki Matsugae. Don’t you suppose, Mr. Honda, that there never was such a person? You seem convinced that there was; but don’t you suppose that there was no such person from the beginning, anywhere? I couldn’t help thinking so as I listened to you.”
“Why then do we know each other? And the Ayakuras and the Matsugaes must still have family registers.”
“Yes, such documents might solve problems in the other world. But did you really know a person called Kiyoaki? And can you say definitely that the two of us have met before?”
“I came here sixty years ago.”
“Memory is like a phantom mirror. It sometimes shows things too distant to be seen, and sometimes it shows them as if they were here.”
“But if there was no Kiyoaki from the beginning—” Honda was groping through a fog. His meeting here with the Abbess seemed half a dream. He spoke loudly, as if to retrieve the self that receded like traces of breath vanishing from a lacquer tray. “If there was no Kiyoaki, then there was no Isao. There was no Ying Chan, and who knows, perhaps there has been no I.”
For the first time there was strength in her eyes.
“That too is as it is in each heart.”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from The Decay of the Angel


“.... كل ما هنالك ان احداً لم يلحظ الأمر، فنحن أكثر تعوداً مما ينبغي .على عبث الوجود. و ضياع كون ليس جديراً ان يحمل على محمل الجد”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from The Decay of the Angel


“He was in a room of the Gesshuuji, which he had thought it would be impossible to visit. The approach of death had made the visit easy, had unloosed the weight that held him in the depths of being. It was even a comfort to think, from the light repose the struggle up the hill had brought him, that Kiyoaki, struggling against illness up that same road, had been given wings to soar with by the denial that awaited him.”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from The Decay of the Angel


“He integrado una delicada maquinaria para averiguar lo que sentiría de ser humano.”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from The Decay of the Angel


“go-go hall on my way home from school.”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from The Decay of the Angel



About the author

Yukio Mishima
Born place: in Yotsuya district of Tokyo, Japan
Born date January 14, 1925
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“How did you notice that?” “Because I notice you.”
― Nalini Singh, quote from Archangel's Enigma


“I’m not wicked.” “Jensen, you’ve spent three years lying low, trying to make everything right. But you can’t redeem yourself. You can’t make yourself and your life whole again. God can.”
― Susan May Warren, quote from Take a Chance on Me


“It is, therefore, necessary to be suspicious of those who seek to convince us with means other than reason, and of charismatic leaders: we must be cautious about delegating to others our judgement and our will. Since it is difficult to distinguish true prophets from false, it is as well to regard all prophets with suspicion. It is better to renounce revealed truths, even if they exalt us by their splendor of if we find them convenient because we can acquire them gratis. It is better to content oneself with other more modest and less exiting truths, those one acquires painfully, little by little and without shortcuts, with study, discussion, and reasoning, those that can we verified and demonstrated.”
― Primo Levi, quote from Se questo è un uomo - La tregua


“Sam’s lingering stares agitated him, eliciting a thickness in his chest that felt suspiciously like feelings. Tristan didn’t do feelings.”
― Sally Slater, quote from Paladin


“As long as we had ground under our feet and the wind at our backs, things were going to be okay.”
― I.W. Gregorio, quote from None of the Above


Interesting books

On the Island
(66.6K)
On the Island
by Tracey Garvis-Graves
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
(13.6K)
The Illuminatus! Tri...
by Robert Shea
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
(240.3K)
Quiet: The Power of...
by Susan Cain
Richard III
(36.8K)
Richard III
by William Shakespeare
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
(48.5K)
The Diving Bell and...
by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Fathers and Sons
(53.2K)
Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.