Along the coast the sea roars, and inland the mountains roar – the roaring at the center, like a distant clap of thunder.

Cosmic time is the same for everyone, but human time differs with each person. Time flows in the same way for all human beings; every human being flows through time in a different way.

Lunatics have no age. If we were crazy, you and I, we might be a great deal younger.

A secret, if it's kept, can be sweet and comforting, but once it leaks out it can turn on you with a vengeance.

They were words that came out of nothing, but they seemed to him somehow significant. He muttered them over again.

Our language is primarily for expressing human goodness and beauty.

But a haiku by Buson came into his mind: 'I try to forget this senile love; a chilly autumn shower.' The gloom only grew denser.