Home > Author > Osamu Dazai
41 " I must go on living. And, though itmay be childish of me, I can't go on insimple compliance. From now on I muststruggle with the world. I thought thatMother might well be the last of thosewho can end their lives beautifully andsadly, struggling with no one, neitherhating nor betraying anyone. In theworld to come there will be no room forsuch people. The dying are beautiful,but to live, to survive – those thingssomehow seem hideous andcontaminated with blood. "
― Osamu Dazai , The Setting Sun
42 " Destruction is tragic and piteous and beautiful. The dream of destroying, building anew, perfecting. Perhaps even, once one has destroyed, the day of perfecting may never come, but in the passion of love I must destroy. I must start a revolution. "
43 " What is society but an individual? [...] The ocean is not society; it is individuals. This was how I managed to gain a modicum of freedom from my terror at the illusion of the ocean called the world. "
― Osamu Dazai , No Longer Human
44 " It may be true that in any society defective types with low vitality like myself are doomed to perish, not because of what they think or anything else, but because of themselves. I have, however, some slight excuse to offer. I feel the overwhelming pressure of circumstances which make it extremely difficult for me to live. "
45 " I drink out of desperation. Life is too dreary to endure. The misery, loneliness, crampedness — they're heartbreaking.[...] What feelings do you suppose a man has when he realizes that he will never know happiness or glory as long as he lives? Hard work. All that amounts to is food for the wild beasts of hunger. "
46 " God killed me, and only after He had made me into someone entirely different from the person I had been, did he call me back to life. "
47 " I also like to take my glasses off and look at people. The faces around me, all of them, seem kind and pretty and smiling. What's more, when my glasses are off, I don't ever think about arguing with anyone at all, nor do I feel the need to make snide remarks. All I do is just blankly stare in silence. "
― Osamu Dazai
48 " I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being. "
49 " If ever I meet someone society has designated as an outcast, I invariably feel affection for him, an emotion which carries me away in melting tenderness. "
50 " Why some people can be smiling and laughing with their friends in one moment yet break down the moment they are alone. To the point where they are so disconnected from their own needs that they mentally refer to themselves in the third-person. And what can happen when they lack the will to break the cycle themselves or seek real support or help. The question of what truly constitutes self-worth ? "
51 " There are some people whose dread of human beings is so morbid that they reach a point where they yearn to see with their own eyes monsters of ever more horrible shapes. And the more nervous they are -the quicker to take fright- the more violent they pray that every storm will be... "
52 " To tell the truth, when I first came to the city, I was afraid to board a streetcar because of the conductor; I was afraid to enter the Kabuki Theatre for fear of the usherettes standing along the sides of the red-carpeted staircase at the main entrance; I was afraid to go into a restaurant because I was intimidated by the waiters furtively hovering behind me waiting for my plate to be emptied. "
53 " i have not the remotest clue what the nature or extent of my neighbor's woes can be. practical troubles, griefs that can be assuaged if only there is enough to eat—these may be the most intense of all burning hells, horrible enough to blast to smithereens my ten misfortunes, but that is precisely what i don't understand: if my neighbors manage to survive without killing themselves, without going mad, maintaining an interest in political parties, not yielding to despair, resolutely pursuing the fight for existence, can their griefs really be genuine? "
54 " One of my tragic flaws is the compulsion to add some sort of embellishment to every situation—a quality which has made people call me at times a liar—but I have almost never embellished in order to bring myself any advantage; it was rather that I had a strangulating fear of that cataclysmic change in the atmosphere the instant the flow of a conversation flagged, and even when I knew that it would later turn to my disadvantage, I frequently felt obliged to add, almost inadvertently, my word of embellishment, out of a desire to please born of my usual desperate mania for service. This may have been a twisted form of my weakness, an idiocy, but the habit it engendered was taken full advantage of by the so-called honest citizens of the world. "
55 " People have told me, really more times that I can remember, ever since I was a small boy, how lucky I was, but I have always felt as if I were suffering in hell. "
56 " I find it difficult to understand the kind of human being who lives, or who is sure he can life, purely, happily, serenely while engaged in deceit. "
57 " Then what's a synonym for woman?""Entrails.""You're not very poetic, are you? Well, then, what's the antonym for entrails?""Milk. "
58 " ...the manner of speech of everybody in the world — held strange, elusive complexities, intricately presented with overtones of vagueness: I have always been baffled by these precautions so strict as to be useless, and by the intensely irritating little maneuvers surrounding them. In the end I have felt past caring; I have laughed them away with my clowning, or surrendered to them abjectly with a silent nod of the head, in the attitude of defeat. "
59 " Toplum. Her nasılsa, az da olsa ne anlama geldiğini anlamaya başlamış gibiydim. İki kişiden birinin haklı bir çekişmede karşısındakine üstün gelmesi yeterli. İnsan asla insana boyun eğmez. Köleler bile köle dibi davranırlar. O yüzden insanın konunun ait olduğu yerde yapılacak bir çekişmeye bel bağlamaktan başka çaresi yok. Vatandaşlık görevlerinden bahsedip dursalar da, tüm çabaların konusu her durumda bireydir; bireyin ihtiyaçları tamamen karşılansa bile, birey yine çıkagelir. Toplumun anlaşmazlığı bireyin anlaşmazlığıdır. Toplum bir okyanus değildir; bireyler okyanustur. Dünya denen okyanus illüzyonuna karşı duyduğum dehşetten azıcık da olsa böyle kurtulmayı başarmıştım. "
― Osamu Dazai , 人間失格、グッド・バイ 他一篇 [Shikkaku: Guddo Bai: Hoka Ippen]
60 " The true substance of love lies in the act of howling words of love with a desperation of a man jumping into the high seas. "
― Osamu Dazai , A New Hamlet