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Osamu Dazai

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“To fall for," "to be fallen for"--I feel in these words something unspeakably vulgar, farcical, and at the same time extraordinarily complacent. Once these expressions put in an appearance, no matter how solemn the place, the silent cathedrals of melancholy crumble, leaving nothing but an impression of fatuousness. It is curious, but the cathedrals of melancholy are not necessarily demolished if one can replace the vulgar "What a messy business it is to be fallen for" by the more literary "What uneasiness lies in being loved.”

IfsLoveFeelsMatterLyingFallExpressionSilentLeavingAppearanceImpressionCuriousFallenMelancholyVulgarSolemnMessyBeing LovedCathedralsComplacentUneasiness
Book:No Longer Human
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“When I pretended to be precocious, people started the rumor that I was precocious. When I acted like an idler, rumor had it I was an idler. When I pretended I couldn't write a novel, people said I couldn't write. When I acted like a liar, they called me a liar. When I acted like a rich man, they started the rumor I was rich. When I feigned indifference, they classed me as the indifferent type. But when I inadvertently groaned because I was really in pain, they started the rumor that I was faking suffering. The world is out of joint.”

PeopleMenWorldWritingSaidPainSufferingNovelRichTypeIndifferenceLiarsIndifferentJointsRumorRich ManIdlersPrecocious
Author:Osamu Dazai
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“One day, I went to a soba restaurant outside town, and while I was waiting for the zarusoba I opened an old graph magazine. There was a picture of an exhausted, lonely kneeling woman who wore a checked patterned yukata after the tradegy of a large earthquake. With the intensity of my chest ready to burn up, I fell in love with that poor woman. I also felt a horrifying desire for her. Maybe tragedy and desire are back to back to one another.”

DesireFeltWaitingPoorReadyOne DayLonelyTragedyTownsMagazinesRestaurantsChestsIntensityExhaustedEarthquakesKneelingGraphs
Author:Osamu Dazai
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“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.”

KnowsMenLongHardFeelingsLife IsRealizingLonelinessHard WorkAmountDrinkGloryMiseryEndureHungerBeastDesperationHeartbreakingDrearyWild Beasts
Book:The Setting Sun
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“I have always shook with fright before human beings. Unable as I was to feel the least particle of confidence in my ability to speak and act like a human being, I kept my solitary agonies locked in my breast. I kept my melancholy and my agitation hidden, careful lest any trace should be left exposed. I feigned an innocent optimism; I gradually perfected myself in the role of the farcical eccentric.”

FeelsShouldHumansLeftSpeakHuman BeingsAbilityRolesOptimismCarefulInnocentBreastsMelancholyExposedLockedSolitaryAgonyParticlesEccentricFrightAgitationAbility To Speak
Book:No Longer Human
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“To wait. In our lives we know joy, anger, sorrow, and a hundred other emotions, but these emotions all together occupy a bare one percent of our time. The remaining ninety-nine percent is just living in waiting. I wait in momentary expectation, feeling as though my breasts are being crushed, for the sound in the corridor of the footsteps of happiness. Empty. Oh, life is too painful, the reality that confirms the universal belief that it is best not to be born.”

KnowsFeelingsRealityTogetherLife IsJoyBeliefWaitingSoundBornEmotionOur LivesSorrowExpectationsPercentHundredEmptyUniversalPainfulNineOur TimeBreastsNinetyCrushedFootstepsMomentaryCorridorsNinety Nine
Author:Osamu Dazai
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“People talk of “social outcasts.” The words apparently denote the miserable losers of the world, the vicious ones, but I feel as though I have been a “social outcast” from the moment I was born. 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.”

PeopleIfsWorldFeelsHas BeensMomentsSocialBornEmotionAffectionMiserableCarrieLoserTendernessViciousMeltingOutcastSocial Outcast
Book:No Longer Human
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“Having said that, I must now admit that I was still afraid of human beings, and before I could meet even the customers in the bar I had to fortify myself by gulping down a glass of liquor. The desire to see frightening things—that was what drew me every night to the bar where, like the child who squeezes his pet all the harder when he actually fears it a little, I proclaimed to the customers standing at the bar my drunken, bungling theories of art.”

HumansChildrenLittlesArtSaidStillsDesireNightHuman BeingsTheoryStandingHarderGlassesCustomersBarsPetEvery NightFrighteningLiquor
Author:Osamu Dazai
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“I thought, “I want to die. I want to die more than ever before. There’s no chance now of a recovery. No matter what sort of thing I do, no matter what I do, it’s sure to be a failure, just a final coating applied to my shame. That dream of going on bicycles to see a waterfall framed in summer leaves—it was not for the likes of me. All that can happen now is that one foul, humiliating sin will be piled on another, and my sufferings will become only the more acute. I want to die. I must die. Living itself is the source of sin.”

WantMatterDreamHappensSufferingDiesChanceSinSourceSummerShameNo Matter WhatFinalsLikesRecoveryBicycleFoulWanting To DieHumiliatingFramedWaterfallsI Want To Die
Book:No Longer Human
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“Mother, recently I have discovered the one way in which human beings differ completely from other animals. Man has, I know, language, knowledge, principles, and social order, but don't all the other animals have them too, granted the difference of degree? Perhaps the animals even have religions. Man boasts of being the lord of all creation, but it would seem as if essentially he does not differ in the least from other animals. But, Mother, there was one way I thought of. Perhaps you won't understand. It's a faculty absolutely unique to man - having secrets. Can you see what I mean?”

IfsKnowsMenWayHumansMeanDoeSeemsMotherOrderLanguageSocialDifferencesHuman BeingsAnimalSecretLordPrinciplesCreationDegreesUniqueGrantedOne WayFacultyBoastSocial Order
Author:Osamu Dazai
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“I am convinced that those people whom the world considers good and respects are all liars and fakes. I do not trust the world. My only ally is the tagged dissolute. The tagged dissolute. That is the only cross on which I wish to be crucified. Though ten thousand people criticize me, I can throw in their teeth my challenge: Are you not all the more dangerous for being without tags?”

PeopleWorldI CanWishChallengesDangerousThousandTenCrossesConvincedTeethFakeLiarsCriticizeAlliesTagTagged
Author:Osamu Dazai
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“Unhappiness. There are all kinds of unhappy people in the world. I suppose it would be no exaggeration to say that the world is composed entirely of unhappy people. But those people can fight their unhappiness with society fairly and squarly, and society for its part easily understands and sympathizes with such struggles. My unhappiness stemmed entirely from my own vices, and I had no way of fighting anybody.”

PeopleWorldWayKindWould BeFightingMy OwnStruggleVicesUnhappyAll KindsUnhappinessExaggerationUnhappy People
Book:No Longer Human
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“I must go on living. And, though it may be childish of me, I can't go on in simple compliance. From now on I must struggle with the world. I thought that Mother might well be the last of those who can end their lives beautifully and sadly, struggling with no one, neither hating nor betraying anyone. In the world to come there will be no room for such people. The dying are beautiful, but to live, to survive – those things somehow seem hideous and contaminated with blood.”

PeopleWorldWellsMayI CanEndsSeemsMightLastsBeautifulMotherHateSimpleRoomsStruggleBloodDyingGoes OnBetrayHideousCompliance
Author:Osamu Dazai
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“Any man who criticizes my suicide and passes judgment on me with an expression of superiority, declaring (without offering the least help) that I should have gone on living my full complement of days, is assuredly a prodigy among men quite capable of tranquilly urging the Emperor to open a fruit shop.”

MenShouldHelpingGoneExpressionJudgmentCapableShould HaveSuicideFruitShopsCriticizeOfferingSuperiorityEmperorComplementDeclaringProdigies
Book:The Setting Sun
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