Quotes by Japanese Authors

My design is no design.
Issey Miyake
One altar forever is preserved, that whereon we burn incense to the supreme idol,--ourselves, our god is great, and money is his Prophet! We devastate nature in order to make sacrifice to him; we boast that we have conquered Matter and forget that it is matter that has forever enslaved us.
Kakuzō Okakura
No matter what the circumstances, no man can completely escape from vanity.
Shūsaku Endō
You can see a person's whole life in the cancer they get.
Haruki Murakami
«Regrets»... I regret how timid and meek I was back then... always telling myself that I couldn't do anything, never even daring to try. That's definitely something I regret. " (p.330)
Ichigo Takano
I have no regrets because I know I did my best – all I could do.
Midori Ito
Obession makes everything possible
Novala Takemoto
You fueled my obession, even encouraged it and your selfishness ruined my life
Novala Takemoto
We should not shed tears.That is a surrender of the body to the heart.It is only proofThat we are beings that do not knowWhat to do with our hearts
Tite Kubo
Shigure: We have just witnessed a classic example of what I like to call 'misdirected rage'. I believe the technical term is being an ass.
Natsuki Takaya
Allowing ourselves to become pure point of view, we hang in midair over the city. What we see now is a gigantic metropolis waking up. Commuter trains of many colors move in all directions, transporting people from place to place. Each of those under transport is a human being with a different face and mind, and at the same time each is a nameless part of the collective identity. Each is simultaneously a self-contained whole and a mere part. Handling this dualism of theirs skillfully and advantageously, they perform their morning rituals with deftness and precision: brushing teeth, shaving, tying neckties, applying lipstick. They check the morning news on TV, exchange words with their families, eat, defecate.
Haruki Murakami
In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic creature - or more like a single collective entity created by many intertwining organism. Countless arteries stretch to the ends of its elusive body, circulating a continuous supply of fresh blood cells, sending out new data and collecting the old, sending out new consumables and collecting the old, sending out new contradictions and collecting the old. To the rhythm of its pulsing, all parts of the body flicker and flare up and squirm. Midnight is approaching, and while the peak of activity has passed, the basal metabolism that maintains life continues undiminished, producing the basso continuo of the city's moan, a monotonous sound that neither rises nor falls but is pregnant with foreboding.
Haruki Murakamiurakami
There are so many people with all kinds of lucky things happening to them and they don't know how to use it.
Rocky Aoki
Never let life's hardships disturb you ... no one can avoid problems not even saints or sages.
Nichiren Daishonen
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old seek what they sought.
Matsuo Basho
Time is not a line but a series of now-points.
Taisen Deshimaru
If you are not happy here and now you never will be.
Taisen Deshimaru
If you wish to know the divine feel the wind on your face and the warm sun on your hand.
Eido Tai Shimano Roshi
There are so many people with all kinds of lucky things happening to them and they don't know how to use it.
Rocky Aoki
Never let life's hardships disturb you ... no one can avoid problems not even saints or sages.
Nichiren Daishonen
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old seek what they sought.
Matsuo Basho
Time is not a line but a series of now-points.
Taisen Deshimaru
If you are not happy here and now you never will be.
Taisen Deshimaru
If you wish to know the divine feel the wind on your face and the warm sun on your hand.
Eido Tai Shimano Roshi
Foolish indeed are those who trust to fortune.
Lady Murasaki
Your heart is full of fertile seeds waiting to sprout.
Morihei Ueshiba
Because you cannot see him God is everywhere.
Yasunari Kawabata
By putting his hand around my neck he slowly strangled himself.
Minako Ohba
Faith is the continuation of reason.
William Adams
When all that hate energy was focused on me it was transformed into a fantastic energy. It was supporting me. If you are centered and you can transform all this energy that comes in it will help you. If you believe it is going to kill you it will kill you.
Yoko Ono
When one devotes oneself to meditation mental burdens unnecessary worries and wandering thoughts drop off one by one life seems to run smoothly and pleasantly. A student may now depend on intuition to make decisions. As one acts on intuition second thought with its dualism doubt and hesitation does not arise.
Nyogen Senzaki
We have resolved to endure the unendurable and suffer what is insufferable.
Emperor Hirohito
Architecture (is) a theatre stage setting where the leading actors are the people and to dramatically direct the dialogue between these people and space is the technique of designing.
Kisho Kurokawa
A flower falls even though we love it. A weed grows even though we don't love it.
Dōgen
The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.
Okakura Kakuzo
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
It was as natural and obvious to me as breathing. So I assumed that everyone else was doing it too. When I realized that everyone else was not doing it -- that they couldn't do it even if they tried -- I told myself, 'I'm different from other people, so the life I live will have to be different from theirs.
Haruki Murakami
Do the words 'human rights' even exist in this country anymore?
Mamoru Oshii
You can't be born again, but you can change.
Natsuki Takaya
Ruri: Is it possible that Shuichiro gets more cuddly every day?Hari: Indubitably...
CLAMP
Ruth was a novelist, and novelists, Oliver asserted, should have cats and books.
Ruth Ozeki
There was no way I could be confident! But it was obvious that the patient will die if I don't do something!"-Dr. Honma
Osamu Tezuka
It's basically the same in all periods of societies. If you belong to the majority, you can avoid thinking about lots of troubling things.''And those troubling things are all you /can/ think about when you're one of the few.''That's about the size of it,' she said mournfully. 'But maybe, if you're in a situation like that, you learn to think for yourself.''Yes, but maybe what you end up thinking for yourself /about/ is all those troubling things.
Haruki Murakami
It was as if my whole life revolved around trying to judge the appropriate point in a conversation to say goodbye
Haruki Murakami
Do you know Eastern proverbs?"Unskilled guns, but... The more guns, the likely they will hit..."I've got plenty of Akuma to go around.
Katsura Hoshino
You know what happens to me!
Satoshi Kon
I like your voice the most in this world.
Natsuki Kizu
I wonder why people work so hard to become politicians just in order to do something wrong.
Masuji Ibuse
Perhaps when a nation goes through a period of upheaval, those who should become politicians, do.
Minae Mizumura
It can't be anyone but youI understand the reason nowLike an angel gently descending,You taught me the meaning of living on earthWhispering,"I want you to protect me,"You supported my heart
Kozue Chiba
It can't be anyone but youI always wondered whyA million "thank you"'s piled upAnd before I knew it, it was loveI was in love with you
Kozue Chiba
In this sleepless night, as the darkness advances, look up at the sky and somehow remember that somewhere in this wide world, there are always people who love you, and people who need you. Because every person can't go on living alone.
Ai Yazawa
When the mind is truly at peace, wherever you are is pleasant, Whether you live in a marketplace or in a mountain hermitage.
Baisao
A sound soul, dwells within a sound mind, and a sound body.
Maka Albarn
I'm not some character from a boys' manga." ~Yukio
Kazue Kato
There's nothing happy about love at all!! I would rather have not known real love... if it hurts this much.
Chitose Yagami
Granting that there is some truth to the theory that defects in society give rise to the emergence of criminals, I still maintain that those who use this theory as a defense of criminality are overlooking the fact that there are many people in this defective society who survive without resorting to crime. The argument to the contrary is pure sophistry.
Akira Kurosawa
27. TreesI shall say absolutely nothing about the spindle tree.
Sei Shōnagon
Are you a terrorist? Or just an idiot?
Wataru Watari
Ranta: Let's just pray that she actually is a tsundere... Though, if she were a tsundere, obviously, the one she'd go dere for is me, you know? That's kind of... not so bad, I guess?Moguzo: O-Obviously, she wouldn't go dere for Ranta, I think...Ranta: Oh, shut up, Moguzo!
Ao Jyumonji