Quotes from Osamu Dazai

I managed to maintain on the surface a smile which never deserted my lips; this was the accommodation I offered to others, a most precarious achievement performed by me only at the cost of excruciating efforts within.

It's not society. You're going to do the ostracizing, aren't you?... What is society but an individual?

Cuanto más pienso, menos entiendo. Me persigue la inquietud y el miedo de sentirme diferente a todos. Casi no puedo conversar con los que me rodean. No sé qué decir, ni cómo decirlo.

The first, a childhood photograph you might call it, shows him about the age of ten, a small boy surrounded by a great many women (his sisters and cousins, no doubt). He stands in brightly checked trousers by the edge of a garden pond.

I see in the face of the human being raging at me a wild animal in its true colors, one more horrible than any lion, crocodile or dragon.

What a stupid little girl you are. I'm going to kiss you." "Go ahead." She pouted out her lower lip, not in the least abashed.

I don't understand the world." "I don't either. I wonder if anyone does. We all remain children, no matter how much time goes by. We don't understand anything.

I hated school and never read a textbook. I only read entertaining books.

Así es cómo se me ocurrieron las bufonadas. Era mi última posibilidad de ganarme el afecto de las personas.

I am the sort of person who can forget even the name of the woman with whom he attempted suicide) to get off from work. The sushi I was eating had nothing to recommend it. Why, when I have forgotten her name, should I be able to remember so clearly how bad the sushi tasted?

Even supposing I could deceive most human beings into respecting me, one of them would know the truth, and sooner or later other human beings would learn from him.

Me cuesta entender que el ser humano viva o quiera vivir con pureza, claridad y felicidad en medio de toda esta mentira mutua.

Yes, I know…I am always your friend.

Desde pequeño, ni siquiera tenía la menor idea de los sufrimientos de mi propia familia o de lo que pensaba. Sólo estaba bien al corriente de mis propios miedos y malestares. En algún momento, me convertí en un niño que nunca podía decir la verdad.

Los cobardes temen hasta la felicidad. Pueden herirse incluso con el algodón.

Por lo general, las personas no muestran lo terribles que son. (...) Basta que se dé la ocasión para que muestren su horrenda naturaleza. Recuerdo que se me llegaba a erizar el cabello de terror al pensar en que este carácter innato es una condición esencial para que el ser humano sobreviva. Al pensarlo, perdía cualquier esperanza sobre la humanidad.

To appeal for help to any human being—I could expect nothing from that expedient.

Nos relacionábamos despreciándonos mutuamente y volviéndonos cada vez más triviales; si esto es lo que el mundo llama «amistad», entonces no hay duda de que eramos amigos.

No matter how often I tried, she never once complimented me.

He would never say something in the shadows that he cannot say directly to a person. If there is something he wants to say, he will always tell the person to their face. He was like that at the university, and he is like that now. That is why he is always losing out.

Je pensais : « Ce n'est que pour m'amuser, je ne le prends que comme partenaire de plaisirs. » D'ordinaire, je le méprisais ; quelquefois je me sentais honteux de me promener dans sa compagnie. Pourtant, c'est par cet homme que me vie fut brisée.

Destruction is tragic and piteous and beautiful. The dream of destroying, building anew, perfecting. Perhaps even, once one has destroyed, the day of perfecting may never come, but in the passion of love I must destroy. I must start a revolution.

It was strange how she calmed my agitation with those few words.

I felt, rather, as if being next to her in itself made it unnecessary to worry.