Yukio Mishima

I had no taste for defeat — much less victory — without a fight.

— Yukio Mishima

Beauty is something that burns the hand when you touch it.

— Yukio Mishima

Glory, as anyone knows, is bitter stuff.

— Yukio Mishima

“You were so beautiful when you wanted to die. When you wanted to live, you became so ugly.”

— Yukio Mishima

“Soggiacevo a quello struggimento, ormai ben attecchito in me, di voler nutrire realmente i sentimenti che mi venivano attribuiti.”

— Yukio Mishima

There isn't any fear in existence itself, or any uncertainty, but living creates it.

— Yukio Mishima

“All six of us are geniuses. And the world, as you know, is empty.”

— Yukio Mishima

“Still immersed in his dream, he drank down the tepid tea. It tasted bitter. Glory, as anyone knows, is bitter stuff.”

— Yukio Mishima

“Duga patnja otupljuje ljude. Otupljeni od patnje više nisu u stanju posumnjati u radost.”

— Yukio Mishima

“Human beings, Isao realized, could descend to communicating their feelings like dogs barking in the distance on a cold night.”

— Yukio Mishima

Anything can become excusable when seen from the standpoint of the result

— Yukio Mishima

When people concentrate on the idea of beauty, they are, without realizing it, confronted with the darkest thoughts that exist in this…

— Yukio Mishima

There's a huge seal called 'impossibility' pasted all over this world. And don't ever forget that we're the only ones who can…

— Yukio Mishima

“This time, Fusako was able to express herself with fluency and candor. The bold letters she had been writing week after week…

— Yukio Mishima

The most appropriate type of daily life for me was a day-by-day world destruction; peace was the most difficult and abnormal state…

— Yukio Mishima

“Great cloud masses boiled up, immense in their quiet majesty. They seemed to drink up all the noise below, even the sound…

— Yukio Mishima

“Because all those people around you and Miss Satoko are moving slowly but inexorably toward a dénouement. You don’t think the two…

— Yukio Mishima

“The only real flesh was the flesh that existed in his imagination. Since, therefore, he regarded the flesh as an ideal abstraction,…

— Yukio Mishima

“How dearly, indeed, I loved my pit, my dusky room, the area of my desk with its piles of books! How I…

— Yukio Mishima

“I've known supreme happiness, and I'm not greedy enough to want what I have to go on forever. Every dream ends. Wouldn't…

— Yukio Mishima

I am one who has always been interested only in the edges of the body and the spirit, the outlying regions of…

— Yukio Mishima

“In the loneliness of зима, one thinks longingly of лето. Memories of лето threw an even sharper тень across their lives. And…

— Yukio Mishima

This is a photograph, so it is as you see: there are no lies and no deceptions. One can detect here, elevated…

— Yukio Mishima

“Sentivo l’urgenza di cominciare a vivere. Cominciare a vivere la mia vera vita? Quand’anche dovesse essere una mascherata pura e semplice e…

— Yukio Mishima

“Doesn’t it seem as though her heart were a green flame? Perhaps it’s the cold green heart of a small green snake,…

— Yukio Mishima

“He found himself in the strange predicament all sailors share: essentially he belonged neither to the land nor to the sea. Possibly…

— Yukio Mishima

The images which the [press] photographer has filtered from reality, whether particular events or the anguish of human reactions to them, already…

— Yukio Mishima

“Father's face was buried in early summer flowers. There was something gruesome about the utter freshness of those flowers. It was as…

— Yukio Mishima

“At his leisure, the lieutenant allowed the unforgettable spectacle to engrave itself upon his mind. With one hand he fondled the hair,…

— Yukio Mishima

“On the switchboard of my memory two pair of gloves have crossed wires - those leather gloves of Omi's and a pair…

— Yukio Mishima

“Though small, the shrine has a long history. In 1333—the Third Year of the Genko era—Lord Takeshigé Kikuchi ascended to it in…

— Yukio Mishima

“No, Mr. Honda, I have forgotten none of the blessings that were mine in the other world. But I fear I have…

— Yukio Mishima

“Count Ayakura’s abstraction persisted. He believed that only a vulgar mentality was willing to acknowledge the possibility of catastrophe. He felt that…

— Yukio Mishima

“To put it in a rather vulgar way, I had been dreaming about love in the firm belief that I could not…

— Yukio Mishima

“It was the sea that made me begin thinking secretly about love more than anything else; you know, a love worth dying…

— Yukio Mishima

“[A] nation must ravage itself before foreigners can ravage it, a man must despise himself before others can despise him.”

— Yukio Mishima

“Procurar placer a una mujer es exponerte a cien sinsabores sin un solo beneficio.”

— Yukio Mishima

It is a common failing of childhood to think that if one makes a hero out of a demon the demon will…

— Yukio Mishima

Again and again, the cicada's untiring cry pierced the sultry summer air like a needle at work on thick cotton cloth.

— Yukio Mishima

The special quality of hell is to see everything clearly down to the last detail.

— Yukio Mishima