“The only real flesh was the flesh that existed in his imagination. Since, therefore, he regarded the flesh as an ideal abstraction, rather than as a physical fact, he had relied on his spiritual strength to subjugate it.” — Yukio Mishima Copy Share Image
When a captive lion steps out of his cage, he comes into a wider world than the lion who has known only the wilds. While he was in captivity, there were only two worlds for him - the world of the cage, and the world outside the cage. Now he is free. He roars. He attacks people. He eats them.… — Yukio Mishima Copy Share
Suddenly the full long wail of a ship's horn surged through the open window and flooded the dim room - a cry of boundless, dark, demanding grief; pitch-black and glabrous as a whale's back and burdened with all the passions of the tides, the memory of voyages beyond counting, the joys, the humiliations: the sea was screaming. Full of the… — Yukio Mishima Copy Share
The purest evil that human efforts could attain, in other words, was probably achieved by those men who made their wills the same and who made their eyes see the world in the same way, men who went against the pattern of life's diversity, men whose spirits shattered the natural wall of the individual body, making nothing of this barrier,… — Yukio Mishima Copy Share
“Because in the pupils of his eyes there lingered the mysterious and eternal horizon that the sea leaves as a keepsake deep in the… — Yukio Mishima Copy Share Image
As usual, it occurred to me that words were the only thing that could possibly save me from this situation. This was a characteristic misunderstanding on my part. When action was needed, I was absorbed in words; for words proceeded with such difficulty from my mouth that I was intent on them and forgot all about action. It seemed to… — Yukio Mishima Copy Share
Mine was the unbearable jealousy a cultured pearl must feel toward a genuine one. Or can there be such a thing in this world… — Yukio Mishima Copy Share Image
“Svoju patnju, koju prihvatam, moram da prihvatim kao dragocenost. Ne postoji nijedan ispirač zlata koji iskopava samo zlato. Ispirač vadi pesak sa korita reke,… — Yukio Mishima Copy Share Image
I am one who has always been interested only in the edges of the body and the spirit, the outlying regions of the body and the outlying regions of the spirit. The depths hold no interest for me; I leave them to others, for they are shallow, commonplace. What is there, then, at the outer most edge? Nothing, perhaps, save… — Yukio Mishima Copy Share
Just let matters slide. How much better to accept each sweet drop of the honey that was Time, than to stoop to the vulgarity latent in every decision. However grave the matter at hand might be, if one neglected it for long enough, the act of neglect itself would begin to affect the situation, and someone else would emerge as… — Yukio Mishima Copy Share
“Great cloud masses boiled up, immense in their quiet majesty. They seemed to drink up all the noise below, even the sound of the… — Yukio Mishima Copy Share Image
The special quality of hell is to see everything clearly down to the last detail. — Yukio Mishima Copy Share Image
It is a rather risky matter to discuss a happiness that has no need of words. — Yukio Mishima Copy Share Image
