What did he mean by "society"? The plural of human beings? by Osamu Dazai

What did he mean by "society"? The plural of human beings?

Osamu Dazai

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What uneasiness lies in being loved. by Osamu Dazai

What uneasiness lies in being loved.

uneasiness being-loved lying

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.

pain liars writing

Now I have neither happiness nor unhappiness.Everything passes.That is the one and only thing that I have thought resembled a truth in the society of human beings where I have dwelled up to now as in a burning hell.Everything passes.

burning unhappiness hell

For someone like myself in whom the ability to trust others is so cracked and broken that I am wretchedly timid and am forever trying to read the expression on people's faces.

broken expression people

I am convinced that human life is filled with many pure, happy, serene examples of insincerity, truly splendid of their kind-of people deceiving one another without (strangely enough) any wounds being inflicted, of people who seem unaware even that they are deceiving one another.

deception example people

I want to spend my time with people who don't look to be respected. But such good people won't want to spend their time with me.

want people looks

But happiness is being able to hope, however faintly, for happiness. So, at least, we must believe if we are to live in the world of today.

able believe world

The weak fear happiness itself. They can harm themselves on cotton wool. Sometimes they are wounded even by happiness

wool cotton sometimes

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?

mother men mean

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.

love lying fall

Addiction is perhaps a sickness of the spirit. by Osamu Dazai

Addiction is perhaps a sickness of the spirit.

sickness addiction spirit

As long as I can make them laugh, it doesn’t matter how, I’ll be alright. If I succeed in that, the human beings probably won’t mind it too much if I remain outside their lives. The one thing I must avoid is becoming offensive in their eyes: I shall be nothing, the wind, the sky.

Labeled a delinquent. That's the only kind of label I want to be... by Osamu Dazai

Labeled a delinquent. That's the only kind of label I want to be crucified under.

labels kind want

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.

hard-work loneliness men

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.

recovery summer dream

I like roses best. But they bloom in all four seasons. I wonder if people who like roses best have to die four times over again.

four-seasons rose people

Now even if I die, no one will be so grieved as to do himself bod... by Osamu Dazai

Now even if I die, no one will be so grieved as to do himself bodily harm.

sadness believe thinking

Victims. Victims of a transitional period of morality. That is wh... by Osamu Dazai

Victims. Victims of a transitional period of morality. That is what we both certainly are.

morality victim periods

Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.

shame live-life humans

A true artist is an ugly man. by Osamu Dazai

A true artist is an ugly man.

ugly artist men