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Top Yukio Mishima Quotes

Browse top 94 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by Yukio Mishima.

Favorite Yukio Mishima Quotes

1. "The blossoms seem unusually lovely this year. There were none of the scarlet-and-white-striped curtains that are set up among the blossoming trees so invariably that one has to come to think of them as the attire of cherry blossoms; there were no bustling tea-stalls, no holiday crowds of flower-viewers, no one hawking balloons and toy windmills; instead there were only the cherry trees blossoming undisturbed among the evergreens, making one feel as though he were seeing the naked bodies of the blossoms. Nature's free bounty and useless extravagance had never appeared so fantastically beautiful as it did this spring. I had an uncomfortable suspicion that Nature had come to reconquer the earth for herself." ~ Yukio Mishima
2. "What transforms this world is — knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world, while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is. When you look at the world with knowledge, you realize that things are unchangeable and at the same time are constantly being transformed." ~ Yukio Mishima
3. "A father is a reality-concealing machine, a machine for dishing up lies to kids, and that isn't even the worst of it: secretly he believes that he represents reality." ~ Yukio Mishima
4. "And it seemed increasingly obvious that the world would have to topple if he was to attain the glory that was rightfully his. They were consubstantial: glory and the capsized world." ~ Yukio Mishima
5. "Japanese people today think of money, just money: Where is our national spirit today? The Jieitai must be the soul of Japan. … The nation has no spiritual foundation. That is why you don't agree with me. You will just be American mercenaries. There you are in your tiny world. You do nothing for Japan. … I salute the Emperor. Long live the emperor!" ~ Yukio Mishima
6. "By means of microscopic observation and astronomical projection the lotus flower can become the foundation for an entire theory of the universe and an agent whereby we may perceive Truth." ~ Yukio Mishima
7. "To put it in a rather vulgar way, I had been dreaming about love in the firm belief that I could not be loved, but at the final stage I had substituted desire for love and felt a sort of relief. But in the end I had understood that desire itself demanded for its fulfillment that I should forget about the conditions of my existence, and that I should abandon what for me constituted the only barrier to love, namely the belief that I could not be loved. I had always thought of desire as being something clearer than it really is, and I had not realized that it required people to see themselves in a slightly dreamlike, unreal way." ~ Yukio Mishima
8. "This time, Fusako was able to express herself with fluency and candor. The bold letters she had been writing week after week had granted her an unexpected new freedom." ~ Yukio Mishima
9. "Possibly a man who hates the land should dwell on shore forever. Alienation and the long voyages at sea will compel him once again to dream of it, torment him with the absurdity of longing for something that he loathes." ~ Yukio Mishima
10. "We are not wounded so deeply when betrayed by the things we hope for as when betrayed by things we try our best to despise.In such betrayal comes the dagger in the back." ~ Yukio Mishima
11. "Dreams, memories, the sacred--they are all alike in that they are beyond our grasp. Once we are even marginally separated from what we can touch, the object is sanctified; it acquires the beauty of the unattainable, the quality of the miraculous. Everything, really, has this quality of sacredness, but we can desecrate it at a touch. How strange man is! His touch defiles and yet he contains the source of miracles." ~ Yukio Mishima
12. "Possessing by letting go of things was a secret of ownership unknown to youth." ~ Yukio Mishima
13. "Nobody even imagines how well one can lie about the state of one's own heart." ~ Yukio Mishima
14. "i still have no way to survive but to keep writing one line, one more line, one more line..." ~ Yukio Mishima
15. "When silence is prolonged over a certain period of time, it takes on new meaning." ~ Yukio Mishima
16. "Yet how strange a thing is the beauty of music! The brief beauty that the player brings into being transforms a given period of time into pure continuance; it is certain never to be repeated; like the existence of dayflies and other such short-lived creatures, beauty is a perfect abstraction and creation of life itself. Nothing is so similar to life as music." ~ Yukio Mishima
17. "if the world changed, i could not exist, and if i changed, the world could not exist" ~ Yukio Mishima
18. "When a captive lion steps out of his cage, he comes into a wider world than the lion who has known only the wilds. While he was in captivity, there were only two worlds for him - the world of the cage, and the world outside the cage. Now he is free. He roars. He attacks people. He eats them. Yet he is not satisfied, for there is no third world that is neither the world of the cage nor the world outside the cage." ~ Yukio Mishima
19. "Real danger is nothing more than just living. Of course, living is merely the chaos of existence, but more than that it's a crazy mixed-up business of dismantling existence instant by instant to the point where the original chaos is restored, and taking strength from the uncertainty and the fear that chaos brings to re-create existence instant by instant. You won't find another job as dangerous as that. There isn't any fear in existence itself, or any uncertainty, but living creates it." ~ Yukio Mishima
20. "When a boy…discovers that he is more given into introspection and consciousness of self than other boys his age, he easily falls into the error of believing it is because he is more mature than they. This was certainly a mistake in my case. Rather, it was because the other boys had no such need of understanding themselves as I had: they could be their natural selves, whereas I was to play a part, a fact that would require considerable understanding and study. So it was not my maturity but my sense of uneasiness, my uncertainty that was forcing me to gain control over my consciousness. Because such consciousness was simply a steppingstone to aberration and my present thinking was nothing but uncertain and haphazard guesswork." ~ Yukio Mishima
21. "His conviction of having no purpose in life other than to act as a distillation of poison was part of the ego of an eighteen-year-old. He had resolved that his beautiful white hands would never be soiled or calloused. He wanted to be like a pennant, dependent on each gusting wind. The only thing that seemed valid to him was to live for the emotions--gratuitous and unstable, dying only to quicken again, dwindling and flaring without direction or purpose." ~ Yukio Mishima
22. "If we look on idly, heaven and earth will never be joined. To join heaven and earth, some decisive deed of purity is necessary. To accomplish so resolute an action, you have to stake your life, giving no thought to personal gain or loss. You have to turn into a dragon and stir up a whirlwind, tear the dark, brooding clouds asunder and soar up into the azure-blue sky." ~ Yukio Mishima
23. "Ebbi allora il presagio che esiste al mondo una sorta di desiderio simile a un dolore lancinante." ~ Yukio Mishima
24. "Fin dall'inizio ogni mia fantasia fu tinteggiata di disperazione, stranamente compiuta e somigliante di per se stessa a desiderio struggente" ~ Yukio Mishima
25. "Onaj ko uvek nosi samo konfekcijske haljine, uvek je spreman da pocne da sumnja u postojanje krojaca." ~ Yukio Mishima
26. "Isao had never felt that he might want to be a woman. He had never wished for anything else but to be a man, live in a manly way, die a manly death. To be thus a man was to give constant proof of one's manliness–to be more a man today than yesterday, more a man tomorrow than today. To be a man was to forge ever upward toward the peak of manhood, there to die amid the white snows of that peak.But to be a woman? It seemed to mean being a woman at the beginning and being a woman forever." ~ Yukio Mishima
27. "It was the sea that made me begin thinking secretly about love more than anything else; you know, a love worth dying for, or a love that consumes you. To a man locked up in a steel ship all the time, the sea is too much like a woman. Things like her lulls and storms, or her caprice, or the beauty of her breast reflecting the setting sun, are all obvious. More than that, you're in a ship that mounts the sea and rides her and yet is constantly denied her. It's the old saw about miles and miles of lovely water and you can't quench your thirst. Nature surrounds a sailor with all these elements so like a woman and yet he is kept as far as a man can be from her warm, living body. That's where the problem begins, right there—I'm sure of it." ~ Yukio Mishima
28. "As to animals," said the Count unexpectedly, "whatever one says, I maintain that the rodent family has a certain charm about it.""The rodent family . . . ?" replied the Baron, not getting the drift at all."Rabbits, marmots, squirrels, and the like.""You have pets of that sort, sir?""No, sir, not at all. Too much of an odor. It would be all over the house.""Ah, I see. Very charming, but you wouldn't have them in the house, is that it?" "Well, sir, in the first place, they seem to have been ignored by the poets, d'you see. And what has no place in a poem has no place in my house. That's my family rule.""I see.""No, I don't keep them as pets. But they're such fuzzy, timid little creatures that I can't help thinking there's no more charming animal.""Yes, Count, I quite agree.""Actually, sir, every charming creature, no matter what sort, seems to have a strong odor.""Yes, indeed, sir. I believe one might say so." ~ Yukio Mishima
29. "Da li je bolest, u stvari, samo ubrzavanje života?" ~ Yukio Mishima
30. "Kiyo, what would you do if all of a sudden I weren't here any more?' Satoko asked, her words coming in a rushed whisper.This was a long-standing trick of Satoko's for disconcerting people. Perhaps she achieved her effects without conscious effort, but she never allowed the slightest hint of mischief into her tone to put her victim at ease. Her voice would be heavy with pathos at such times, as though confiding the gravest of secrets.Although he should have been inured to this by now, Kiyoaki could not help asking: 'Not here any more? Why?'Despite all his efforts to indicate a studied disinterest, Kiyoaki's reply betrayed his uneasiness. It was what Satoko wanted.'I can't tell you why,' she answered, deftly dropping ink into the clear waters of Kiyoaki's heart..." ~ Yukio Mishima
31. "Küsides, mille nimel ta elab, muutub iga inimene rahutuks ja võib end isegi tappa. Mulle piisab ainuüksi sellest, etolemas olla. Kas kahtlus iseenda eksistentsi pärast ei teki just liigsest rahuolematusest, et ei elata täiel rinnal?" ~ Yukio Mishima
32. "La somiglianza è come una dolce sensazione, basterebbe somigliarsi per credere che esistano la comprensione, i pensieri che si trasmettono senza parole, la fiducia reciproca. Si somigliavano soprattutto nei loro occhi limpidi, quegli occhi che purificarono lo sporco del mondo che li adombrava, come il filtro che purifica l'aria torbida e la rende potabile. Sembrava che l'acqua limpida fluisse dai loro occhi verso l'esterno. Il giorno in cui scorrerà sul mondo toglierà ogni contaminazione." ~ Yukio Mishima
33. "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
34. "Sentivo l'urgenza di cominciare a vivere. Cominciare a vivere la mia vera vita? Quand'anche dovesse essere una mascherata pura e semplice e niente affatto la mia vita, era venuto ugualmente il momento in cui bisognava ch'io mi mettessi in cammino, che trascinassi i miei torbidi piedi" ~ Yukio Mishima
35. "How dearly, indeed, I loved my pit, my dusky room, the area of my desk with its piles of books! How I enjoyed introspection, shrouded myself in cogitation; with what rapture did I listen for the rustling of frail insects in the thickets of my nerves!" ~ Yukio Mishima
36. "An ugliness unfurled in the moonlight and soft shadow and suffused the whole world. If I were an amoeba, he thought, with an infinitesimal body, I could defeat ugliness. A man isn't tiny or giant enough to defeat anything." ~ Yukio Mishima
37. "I do not mean to say that I viewed those desires of mine that deviated from accepted standards as normal and orthodox; nor do I mean that I labored under the mistaken impression that my friends possessed the same desires. Surprisingly enough, I was so engrossed in tales of romance that I devoted all my elegant dreams to thoughts of love between man and maid, and to marriage, exactly as though I were a young girl who knew nothing of the world. I tossed my love for Omi onto the rubbish heap of neglected riddles, never once searching deeply for its meaning. Now when I write the word love, when I write affection, my meaning is totally different from my understanding of the words at that time. I never even dreamed that such desires as I had felt toward Omi might have a significant connection with the realities of my "life." ~ Yukio Mishima
38. "To see human beings in agony, to see them covered in blood and to hear their death groans, makes people humble. It makes their spirits delicate, bright, peaceful. It's never at such times that we become cruel or bloodthirsty. No, it's on a beautiful spring afternoon like this that people suddenly become cruel. It's at a moment like this, don't you think, while one's vaguely watching the sun as it peeps through the leaves of the trees above a well-mown lawn? Every possible nightmare in the world, every possible nightmare in history, has come into being like this." ~ Yukio Mishima
39. "When people concentrate on the idea of beauty, they are, without realizing it, confronted with the darkest thoughts that exist in this world. That, I suppose, is how human beings are made." ~ Yukio Mishima
40. "Even when we're with someone we love, we're foolish enough to think of her body and soul as being separate. To stand before the person we love is not the same as loving her true self, for we are only apt to regard her physical beauty as the indispensable mode of her existence. When time and space intervene, it is possible to be deceived by both, but on the other hand, it is equally possible to draw twice as close to her real self." ~ Yukio Mishima
41. "As usual, it occurred to me that words were the only thing that could possibly save me from this situation. This was a characteristic misunderstanding on my part. When action was needed, I was absorbed in words; for words proceeded with such difficulty from my mouth that I was intent on them and forgot all about action. It seemed to me that actions, which are dazzling, varied things, must always be accompanied by equally dazzling and equally varied words." ~ Yukio Mishima
42. "We had stretched out our arms to each other and supported something in our joined hands, but this thing we were holding was like a sort of gas that exists when you believe in its existence and disappears when you doubt. The task of supporting it seems simple at first glance, but actually requires an ultimate refinement of calculation and a consummate skill." ~ Yukio Mishima
43. "It is a rather risky matter to discuss a happiness that has no need of words." ~ Yukio Mishima
44. "..and certain that life consisted of a few simple signals and decisions; that death took root at the moment of birth and man's only recourse thereafter was to water and tend it; that propagation was a fiction; consequently, society was a fiction too; that fathers and teachers, by virtue of being fathers and teachers, were guilty of a grievous sin." ~ Yukio Mishima
45. "The only people in this world I really trust are my fans - even if they do forget you so fast." ~ Yukio Mishima
46. "He heard the sound of waves striking the shore, and it was as though the surging of his young blood was keeping time with the movement of the sea's great tides. It was doubtless because nature itself satisfied his need that Shinji felt no particular lack of music in his everyday life." ~ Yukio Mishima
47. "There's a huge seal called 'impossibility' pasted all over this world. And don't ever forget that we're the only ones who can tear it off once and for all." ~ Yukio Mishima
48. "...living is merely the chaos of existence..." ~ Yukio Mishima
49. "El intelecto, lejos de ser un valor cultural inofensivo, me había sido otorgado únicamente como un arma, un medio de supervivencia. Así, las disciplinas físicas que más adelanteserían tan necesarias para mi supervivencia se podían comparar en cierto sentido al modo en que una persona para quien el cuerpo ha sido el único medio de vida se embarca en un frenético intento de adquirir una educación intelectual cuando su juventud está en el lecho de muerte." ~ Yukio Mishima
50. "The special quality of hell is to see everything clearly down to the last detail." ~ Yukio Mishima
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Today's Quote

Ideas govern the world, or throw it into chaos."
Author: Auguste Comte

What Did Yukio Mishima Talk About?

Thin
Wit
Con
Tan
Per
Ear
Here
Hen
Ten
Thou
Though
Use
Self
Sin
Lit
Hey
Exist
Ally
Ring
Old
Lie
Ought
Able
Era
Once
End
Act
Side
Seem
Sea
King
Body
Pen
Existence
Son
Win
Bee
Owe
Hear
Less
She
Felt
Hum
Tea
Itself
Cause
Light
Dark
Sing
Young

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