Quotes from Osamu Dazai

This year I am twenty-seven. My hair has become much greyer. Most people would take me for over forty.

Tahun lalu tak terjadi apa-apa Tahun sebelumnya pun tak terjadi apa-apa Dan tahun sebelum tahun sebelumnya juga tak terjadi apa-apa.

I have frantically played the clown in order to disentangle myself from these painful relationships, only to wear myself out as a result.

It may be true that in any society defective types with low vitality like myself are doomed to perish, not because of what they think or anything else, but because of themselves. I have, however, some slight excuse to offer. I feel the overwhelming pressure of circumstances which make it extremely difficult for me to live.

En mi existencia ya no existe la felicidad o el sufrimiento. Todo pasa. Esa es la única verdad en toda mi vida, transcurrida en el interminable infierno de la sociedad humana. Todo pasa.

books. I would scorn the pointless, haughty posturing, scorn its abstracted way of living. There I go again—pondering the purposelessness of my day-to-day life, wishing I had more ambition, and lamenting all the contradictions in myself—when I know it's just sentimental nonsense. All I'm doing is indulging myself, trying to console myself.

Quiero morir, porque el vivir sólo causa pecado.

Human beings never submit to human beings

They called me by my first name and bought me drinks.

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 was only natural for Yozo to vacillate when asked about the reason behind his suicide – it was everything to him.

I find it difficult to understand the kind of human being who lives, or who is sure he can live, purely, happily, serenely while engaged in deceit.

Masks in one layer after another—as many as ten or twenty—had fastened themselves upon me, and I could no longer tell how sad any one of them really was.

As a child I had absolutely no notion of what others, even members of my own family, might be suffering or what they were thinking. I was aware only of my own unspeakable fears and embarrassments. Before anyone realized it, I had become an accomplished clown, a child who never spoke a single truthful word.

Communal living had proved quite impossible for me. It gave me chills just to hear such words as "the ardor of youth" or "youthful pride": I could not by any stretch of the imagination soak myself in "college spirit.

I am choking in the suffocating foul air of the harbor. I want to hoist my sails in the open sea, even though a tempest may be blowing. Furled sails are always dirty. Those who would deride me are so many furled sails. They can do nothing.

To be alive. To be alive. An intolerably immense undertaking before which one can only gasp in apprehension.

I was plagued by a heavy sense of loss, as if my heart had become empty.

These clownish words of deceit were taken more seriously than the truth.

Around that time, I lost interest in college. I could only see blackness before me, I didn't know what to do. It was no easy matter to prevent my father from criticizing my loafing around the house and my mother from seeing me as unworthy.

Of course, I intended to die without telling a soul about my illness. Without anyone knowing, I would secretly deteriorate. Actually, I felt that there was nothing else I could do. I had no alternatives. Shouldn't I be resolved to die as a peasant in my horribly confused final circumstance? I had no excuses. It was not because life suddenly became precious, but the forced pretense until yesterday had disappeared.

Young people never say anything straight. You can tell they're being honest if they hide behind a laugh.

The true substance of love lies in the act of howling words of love with a desperation of a man jumping into the high seas.

The clash between rich and poor is a hackneyed enough subject, but I am now convinced that it really is one of the eternal themes of drama.