If we lived forever, if the dews of Adashino never vanished, if the crematory smoke on Toribeyama never faded, men would hardly feel the pity of things. The beauty of life is in its impermanence. Man lives the longest of all living things... and even one year lived peacefully seems very long. Yet for such as love the world, a thousand years would fade like the dream of one night.

The true criminal must be defined as a man who commits a crime though he is as decently fed and clothed as others.

You should never put the new antlers of a deer to your nose and smell them. They have little insects that crawl into the nose and devour the brain.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty

Even members of the nobility, let alone persons of no consequence, would do well not to have children.

It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met.