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Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima Quotes

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Famous Yukio Mishima Quotes

“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.”

ActionSituationNeededMouthsDifficultyCharacteristicsUsualMisunderstandingSave MeDazzling
Book:The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
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“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.”

CertainGivenPerfectExistencePlayerCreationStrangePeriodsPureCreaturesAbstractionShort LivedContinuance
Author:Yukio Mishima
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“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.”

RealJobsCoursesExistenceCrazyDangerousDangerOriginalsChaosUncertaintyInstant
Author:Yukio Mishima
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“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.”

FirstsBelieveHandsSeemsSimpleExistenceDoubtArmsSkillsTasksUltimateDisappearGasGlancesCalculationsRefinement
Book:Confessions of a Mask
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“He had never looked forward to the wisdom and other vaunted benefits of old age. Would he be able to die young—and if possible free of all pain? A graceful death—as a richly patterned kimono, thrown carelessly across a polished table, slides unobtrusively down into the darkness of the floor beneath. A death marked by elegance.”

IfsAgeAblePainYoungDiesDarknessBenefitsTablesOld AgeThrownEleganceSlidesPolishedDie YoungKimonos
Book:Spring Snow
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“Time is what matters. As time goes by, you and I will be carried inexorably into the mainstream of our period, even though we’re unaware of what it is. And later, when they say that young men in the early Taisho era thought, dressed, talked, in such and such a way, they’ll be talking about you and me. We’ll all be lumped together…. In a few decades, people will see you and the people you despise as one and the same, a single entity.”

PeopleMenWayMatterTogetherYoungTalkingPeriodsDecadesErasYoung ManDespiseMainstreamEntityWhat MattersTime Goes By
Book:Spring Snow
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“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.”

PeopleThinkingWorldHumansWellsMomentsBeautifulSpiritHuman BeingsSunTreeBloodSpringHumblePeacefulNightmareCoveredAfternoonDelicateAgonyLawns
Book:The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
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“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.”

ThinkingPersonsRealSoulSelfEnoughBodyHandsSpaceLove IsExistenceDrawsRegardFoolishIndispensableTrue SelfTime And SpaceDeceivedReal SelfPhysical Beauty
Author:Yukio Mishima
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“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.”

MenWayWantGivingMightTodayDiesFeltWhiteTomorrowConstantProofYesterdaySnowManhoodBe A ManManlyManliness
Book:Runaway Horses
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“We tend to suffer from the illusion that we are capable of dying for a belief or theory. What Hagakure is insisting is that even in merciless death, a futile death that knows neither flower nor fruit has dignity as the death of a human being. If we value so highly the dignity of life, how can we not also value the dignity of death? No death may be called futile.”

IfsKnowsHumansMaySufferingValuesBeliefHuman BeingsDyingFlowerTheoryCapableIllusionDignityFruitInsisting
Author:Yukio Mishima
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“Just let matters slide. How much better to accept each sweet drop of the honey that was Time, than to stoop to the vulgarity latent in every decision. However grave the matter at hand might be, if one neglected it for long enough, the act of neglect itself would begin to affect the situation, and someone else would emerge as an ally. Such was Count Ayakura's version of political theory.”

IfsLongMatterEnoughHandsMightPoliticalDecisionSituationAcceptingSweetTheoryGravesVersionsNeglectAlliesHoneySlidesNeglectedVulgarityLatentStoopsPolitical Theory
Book:Spring Snow
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“In the pale light of daybreak the gravestones looked like so many white sails of boats anchored in a busy harbor. They were sails that would never again be filled with wind, sails that, too long unused and heavily drooping, had been turned into stone just as they were. The boats' anchors had been thrust so deeply into the dark earth that they could never again be raised.”

LongLightEarthDarkWhiteWindStonesFilledRaisedBusyBoatPaleSailHarborsThrustAnchorsGravestoneDaybreak
Author:Yukio Mishima
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“Pain, I came to feel, might well prove to be the sole proof of the persistence of consciousness within the flesh, the sole physical expression of consciousness. As my body acquired muscle, and in turn strength, there was gradually born within me a tendency towards the positive acceptance of pain, and my interest in physical suffering deepened.”

FeelsWellsBodyMightPainSufferingTurnsInterestBornConsciousnessAcceptanceExpressionProveProofFleshTendenciesPersistenceMusclesSole
Author:Yukio Mishima
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