Yukio Mishima Quotes

A samurai, even when he has not eaten, uses his toothpick

What transforms this world is—knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world

Only in dreams, in poetry, in play do we sometimes arrive at what we were before we were this thing that, who knows, we are

For those who have been addicted to daydreams there is no cure

Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood

The past does not only influence the present; the present equally flows into the past, and what we do now can change what was done then

Great art is an expression of the senses and in itself it is an act of violence, an attack on the unspeakable secrets of nature

The highest point at which the human soul can reach is not knowledge or virtue or goodness or victory but something even greater, more heroic, more despairing: sanctity

If we look at the world with a love of life, the world will reveal its beauty to us

What I wanted was to die among strangers, untroubled in spirit by the sympathy of those who loved me