Lafcadio Hearn

Whatever doubts or vexations one has in Japan, it is only necessary to ask one's self: "Well, who are the best people…

— Lafcadio Hearn

No man can possibly know what life means, what the world means, what anything means, until he has a child and loves…

— Lafcadio Hearn

In the world of reality the more beautiful a work of art, the longer, we may be sure, was the time required…

— Lafcadio Hearn

To ancient Chinese fancy, the Milky Way was a luminous river, - the River of Heaven, - the Silver Stream.

— Lafcadio Hearn

It is no exaggeration to say that the English Bible is, next to Shakespeare, the greatest work in English literature, and that…

— Lafcadio Hearn

The great principle of Western society is that competition rules here as it rules in everything else. The best man - that…

— Lafcadio Hearn

It has been wisely observed by the greatest of modern thinkers that mankind has progressed more rapidly in every other respect than…

— Lafcadio Hearn

I often imagine that the longer he studies English literature the more the Japanese student must be astonished at the extraordinary predominance…

— Lafcadio Hearn

Of course, the simple explanation of the fact is that marriage is the most important act of man's life in Europe or…

— Lafcadio Hearn

The Western poet and writer of romance has exactly the same kind of difficulty in comprehending Eastern subjects as you have in…

— Lafcadio Hearn

The time of illusion, then, is the beautiful moment of passion; it represents the artistic zone in which the poet or romance…

— Lafcadio Hearn

For this reason, to study English literature without some general knowledge of the relation of the Bible to that literature would be…

— Lafcadio Hearn

The more you wish to be, the wiser you are; while the wish to have is apt to be foolish in proportion…

— Lafcadio Hearn

The proverbial philosophy of a people helps us to understand more about them than any other kind of literature.

— Lafcadio Hearn

One of the great defects of English books printed in the last century is the want of an index.

— Lafcadio Hearn

Any idealism is a proper subject for art.

— Lafcadio Hearn

“On the Gulf side of these islands you may observe that the trees—where there are any trees—all bend away from the sea;…

— Lafcadio Hearn