Quotes by Sōseki Natsume

Hirota feels strongly drawn toward nature and the natural, is hyper-sensitive to the artificial—particularly that most cramped and constraining man-made creation, society—and does his best to avoid it.

I may be someone who was always destined to spend my life wandering aimlessly. I can’t settle down. The cruel part is, I want to settle down and the world won’t let me. So what choice do I have but to become a fugitive?

Reflection may be essential to a scholar, but it’s taboo in social intercourse.

People may make fun of me because I’m wearing something odd, but it’s still good to be alive.

It’s so unrewarding, being a woman.

Its like the frog that tried to outdo the cow...see, the consequences are reflected in each of us as individuals. A people so oppressed by the West have no mental leisure, they cant do anything worthwhile. They get an education thats stripped to the bare bone, and theyre driven with their noses to the grindstone until theyre dizzy -- thats why they all end up with nervous breakdowns. Try talking to them -- theyre usually stupid. They havent thought about a thing beyond themselves, that day, that very instant. Theyre too exhausted to think about anything else; its not their fault. Unfortunately, exhaustion of the spirit and deterioration of the body come hand-in-hand. And thats not all. The decline of morality has set in too. Look where you will in this country, you wont find one square inch of brightness. Its all pitch black. So what difference would it make...

Living as I do with human beings, the more that I observe them, the more I am forced to conclude that they are selfish.

There was nothing so very unfamiliar about the excitement she was feeling, and yet it felt always like a new excitement. It was, in other words, a perennially unfamiliar feeling.

He seemed to become aware of a dark, imponderable force pushing him left when he meant to go right or pulling him back when he meant to go forward. Until that moment, hewould have felt certain that his actions had never been subject to restraintby others. He had been certain that he did whatever he did of his ownaccord, that everything he said he intended to say.

Words are not meant to stir the air only: they are capable of moving greater things.

That Seigo could go into geisha houses, accept luncheon invitations, drop in at the Club, see people off at Shimabashi, meet them at Yokohama, run out to Oiso to humor the elders—that he could put in his appearance at large gatherings from morning to evening without seeming either triumphant or dejected—this must be because he was thoroughly accustomed to this kind of life, thought Daisuke; it was probably like the jellyfishs floating in the sea and not finding it salty.

I am a lonely man, he said again that evening. And is it not possible that you are also a lonely person? But I am an older man, and I can live with my loneliness, quietly. You are young, and it must be difficult to accept your loneliness. You must sometimes want to fight it.But I am not at all lonely.Youth is the loneliest time of all. Otherwise, why should you come so often to my house?Sensei continued: But surely, when you are with me, you cannot rid yourself of your loneliness. I have not it in me to help you forget it. You will have to look elsewhere for the consolation you seek. And soon, you will find that you no longer want to visit me.As he said this, Sensei smiled sadly.

The memory of having sat at someone’s feet will later make you want to trample him underfoot. I’m trying to fend off your admiration for me, you see, in order to save myself from your future contempt. I prefer to put up with my present state of loneliness rather than suffer more loneliness later. We who are born into this age of freedom and independence and the self must undergo this loneliness. It’s the price we pay for these times of ours.

There was a large crowd around us, and every face in it looked happy. We had little opportunity to talk until we reached the woods, where there were no flowers and no people.

I am a lonely man, Sensei said. And so I am glad that you come to see me. But I am also a melancholy man, and so I asked you why you should wish to visit me so often.

Over the wintry forest, winds howl in rage with no leaves to blow.

There, sitting cross-legged on the floor, he stared absently at his legs. They began to look strange. They no longer seemed to grow from his trunk at all, but rather, completely unconnected, they sprawled rudely before him. When he got this far, he realized something he had never noticed before—that his legs were unbearably hideous. With hair growing unevenly and blue streaks running rampant, they were terribly strange creatures.

We who are born into this age of freedom and independence and the self must undergo this loneliness. It is the price we pay for these times of ours.

I often laughed, and you often gave me a dissatisfied look, till you pressed me to unfold my past before you as if it were a roll of pictures. It was then I felt respect for you. Because you unreservedly showed me your resolution to catch something alive in my being, and to sip the warm blood running in my body, by cutting my heart. At that time, I was still living, and did not want to die. So I rejected your request, promising to satisfy you some day. Now I am going to destroy my heart myself, and pour my blood into your veins. I shall be happy if a new life can enter into your bosom, when my heart has stopped beating.

That K was hesitant in love does not mean that his love was in any sense lukewarm. He was unable to move, despite the violence of his emotion. And since the impact of his new emotion was not so great as to allow him to forget himself, he was forced to look back and remind himself of what his past had meant. And in doing so he could not but continue along the path that he had so far followed.