The weak fear happiness itself. Osamu Dazai More Quotes by Osamu Dazai More Quotes From Osamu Dazai All I feel are the assaults of apprehension and terror at the thought that I am the only one who is entirely unlike the rest. It is almost impossible for me to converse with other people. What should I talk about, how should I say it? - I don't know. Osamu Dazai shouldimpossiblepeople 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. Osamu Dazai agitationagonyoptimism The real things are apt to be deviant. Osamu Dazai deviantsreal-thingsreal 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. Osamu Dazai hatemotherbeautiful What frightened me was the logic of the world; in it lay the foretaste of something incalculably powerful. Its mechanism was incomprehensible, and I could not possibly remain closeted in that windowless, bone-chilling room. Though outside lay the sea of irrationality, it was far more agreeable to swim in its waters until presently I drowned. Osamu Dazai powerfulseawater Whenever I was asked what I wanted my first impulse was to answer "Nothing." The thought went through my mind that it didn't make any difference, that nothing was going to make me happy. Osamu Dazai differencesmindfirsts I have no desire for others to take it on themselves to analyze my thoughts. I am without thoughts. I have never, not even once, acted on the basis of any doctrine or philosophy.I am convinced that those people whom the world considers good and respects are all liars and fakes. I do not trust the world. Osamu Dazai liarsphilosophypeople 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. Osamu Dazai ninety-nineexpectationsreality Scoundrels [...] simply don't die. The ones who die are always the gentle, sweet, and beautiful people. [...] Scoundrels live a long time. The beautiful die young. Osamu Dazai beautifulsweetlong I have often felt that I would find it more complicated, troublesome and unpleasant to ascertain the feelings by which a woman lives than to plumb the innermost thoughts of an earthworm. Osamu Dazai womencomplicatedfeelings Virtue and vice are concepts invented by human beings, words for a morality which human beings arbitrarily devised. Osamu Dazai moralityvirtuevices It would seem that the more irresponsible and crafty one is, the more likely one is to have a talent for storytelling. Osamu Dazai irresponsiblestorytellingtalent Last year nothing happened The year before nothing happened And the year before that nothing happened. Osamu Dazai happenedlastsyears At times everything grows misty and dark before my eyes, and I feel that the strength of my whole body is oozing away through my finger tips. Osamu Dazai bodyeyedark 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. Osamu Dazai offeringsuicidemen 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. Osamu Dazai fightingstrugglepeople To be a friend of the weak-that is the artist's point of departure as well as his ultimate goal. Osamu Dazai departureartistgoal The world, after all, was still a place of bottomless horror. It was by no means a place of childlike simplicity where everything could be settled by a simple then-and-there decision. Osamu Dazai simplicitysimplemean 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. Osamu Dazai meltingpeopleworld Then what's a synonym for woman?" "Entrails." "You're not very poetic, are you? Well, then, what's the antonym for entrails?" "Milk. Osamu Dazai poeticmilkwells
