The Best Yukio Mishima Quotes: 100 Pearls Of Wisdom To Inspire Any Young Poet
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Kimitake Hiraoka, better known as Yukio Mishima was a famed writer, actor, film director and playwright from Japan.
The poet and film director from Japan is popular for many of his works including ‘Confessions Of A Mask’, ‘The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion’, ‘Sun And Steel’ and ‘Spring Snow’. He tragically died on 25 November 1970, but his legacy lives on.
Previously, we have shared [Izuku Midoriya quotes] and inspirational anime quotes. Today, we have fantastic quotes from Japan’s celebrated writer, Yukio Mishima'. Enjoy!
Yukio Mishima Quotes For The Young
The Japanese film director and playwright’s quotes can inspire you.
1. “Possessing by letting go of things was a secret of ownership unknown to youth.”
- Yukio Mishima.
2. “I still have no way to survive but to keep writing one line, one more line, one more line…”
- Yukio Mishima.
3. “I want to make a poem of my life.”
- Yukio Mishima.
4. “Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood.”
- Yukio Mishima.
5. “When people concentrate on the idea of beauty, they are, without realizing it, confronted with the darkest thoughts that exist in this world. That, I suppose, is how human beings are made.”
- Yukio Mishima.
6. “Nobody even imagines how well one can lie about the state of one’s own heart.”
- Yukio Mishima.
7. “We human beings sometimes steer off in a direction in which we hope to find something a little bit better.”
- Yukio Mishima.
8. “True beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys.”
- Yukio Mishima.
9. “It is a rather risky matter to discuss a happiness that has no need of words.”
- Yukio Mishima.
10. “When silence is prolonged over a certain period of time, it takes on new meaning.”
- Yukio Mishima.
11. “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 tear it off once and for all.”
- Yukio Mishima.
12. “At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it.”
- Yukio Mishima.
13. “Young people get the foolish idea that what is new for them must be new for everybody else too. No matter how unconventional they get, they're just repeating what others before them have done.”
- Yukio Mishima.
14. “For an artist to do creative work, he needs at once physical health and some physiomental ill health. He needs both serenity and gloom.”
- Yukio Mishima.
15. “The period of childhood is a stage on which time and space become entangled.”
- Yukio Mishima.
16. “Glory, as anyone knows, is bitter stuff.”
- Yukio Mishima.
17. “For clearly it is impossible to touch eternity with one hand and life with the other.”
- Yukio Mishima.
18. “If the world changed, I could not exist, and if I changed, the world could not exist.”
- Yukio Mishima.
19. “The highest point at which human life and art meet is in the ordinary. To look down on the ordinary is to despise what you can't have.”
- Yukio Mishima.
20. “Human life is limited but I would like to live forever.”
- Yukio Mishima.
21. “The past does not only draw us back to the past. There are certain memories of the past that have strong steel springs and, when we who live in the present touch them, they are suddenly stretched taut and then they propel us into the future.”
- Yukio Mishima.
Yukio Mishima Life Quotes
Here are some words of wisdom from Japan’s famous writer.
22. “Beauty is something that burns the hand when you touch it.”
- Yukio Mishima.
23. “As long as you know I am waiting, take your time flowers of the spring.”
- Yukio Mishima.
24. “I had no taste for defeat - much less victory - without a fight.”
- Yukio Mishima.
25. “It seems to me that before the photograph can exist as art it must, by its very nature choose whether it is to be a record or a testimony.”
- Yukio Mishima.
26. “Was I ignorant, then, when I was seventeen? I think not, I knew everything. A quarter-century's experience of life since then has added nothing to what I knew; the one difference is that at seventeen I had no 'realism'.”
- Yukio Mishima.
27. “Beyond doubt, there was a certain splendor in pain, which bore a deep affinity to the splendor that lies hidden within strength.”
- Yukio Mishima.
28. “The cynicism that regards hero worship as comical is always shadowed by a sense of physical inferiority.”
- Yukio Mishima.
29. “Everybody’s the same. People are all the same. But it’s the prerogative of youth to think it’s not so.”
- Yukio Mishima.
30. “Anything can become excusable when seen from the standpoint of the result.”
- Yukio Mishima.
31. “The more I wrote, the more I realized mere words were not enough.”
- Yukio Mishima.
32. “Better to be caught in sudden, complete catastrophe than to be gnawed by the cancer of imagination.”
- Yukio Mishima.
33. “The only people in this world I really trust are my fans - even if they do forget you so fast.”
- Yukio Mishima.
34. “There is no virtue in curiosity.”
- Yukio Mishima.
35. “Words are a medium that reduces reality to abstraction for transmission to our reason, and in their power to corrode reality inevitably lurks the danger that the words will be corroded too.”
- Yukio Mishima.
36. “The special quality of hell is to see everything clearly down to the last detail.”
- Yukio Mishima, ‘The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion’.
37. “My 'act' has ended by becoming an integral part of my nature, I told myself. It's no longer an act.”
- Yukio Mishima.
38. “All my life I have been acutely aware of a contradiction in the very nature of my existence.”
- Yukio Mishima.
39. “We live in an age in which there is no heroic death.”
- Yukio Mishima.
40. “Only through the group, I realised - through sharing the suffering of the group - could the body reach that height of existence that the individual alone could never attain.”
- Yukio Mishima, ‘Sun And Steel’.
41. “The most appropriate type of daily life for me was a day-by-day world destruction; peace was the most difficult and abnormal state to live in.”
- Yukio Mishima.
42. “A samurai is a total human being, whereas a man who is completely absorbed in his technical skill has degenerated into a 'function', one cog in a machine.”
- Yukio Mishima.
Yukio Mishima Book Quotes
Here are some Yukio Mishima poems and book quotes, from ‘The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion’, 'Sun And Steel' and more. If you love Yukio Mishima poetry, which is your favorite Yukio Mishima poem?
43. “Is there not a sort of remorse that precedes sin? Was it remorse at the very fact that I existed?”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Confessions Of A Mask'.
44. “Of all the kinds of decay in this world, decadent purity is the most malignant.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Confessions Of A Mask'.
45. “Ours is an age in which everything is based on the premise that it is best to live as long as possible. The average lifespan has become the longest in history, and a monotonous plan for humanity unrolls before us.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'The Way Of The Samurai: Yukio Mishima On Hagakure In Modern Life'.
46. “According to Eshin's 'Essentials of Salvation', the Ten Pleasures are but a drop in the ocean when compared to the joys of the Pure Land.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'The Priest Of Shiga Temple And His Love'.
47. “In its essence, any art that relies on words makes use of their ability to eat away — of their corrosive function — just as etching depends on the corrosive power of nitric acid.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Sun And Steel'.
48. “No human being can be so honest as to become completely false.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Thirst For Love'.
49. “Only knowledge can turn life's unbearableness into a weapon.”
- Yukio Mishima, ‘The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion’.
50. “To Ryuji the smile seemed as brittle as fine glass crystal and very dangerous.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea'.
51. “Just now I had a dream. I'll see you again. I know it.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Spring Snow'.
52. “Everything, really, has this quality of sacredness, but we can desecrate it at a touch. How strange man is! His touch defiles and yet he contains the source of miracles.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Spring Snow'.
53. “He radiated the innocence that marks the absolute rejection of prudence.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Runaway Horses'.
54. “Most people are always doubtful as to whether they are happy or not, cheerful or not. This is the normal state of happiness, as doubt is a most natural thing.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Confessions Of A Mask'.
55. “Let the darkness that is in my heart become equal to the darkness of the night that surrounds those innumerable lights!”
- Yukio Mishima ‘The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion’.
56. “Separation is painful, but so is its opposite. And if being together brings joy, then it is only proper that separation should do the same in its own way.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Spring Snow'.
57. “Those words of my friend were like fertilizer poured over the poisonous weed of an idea deeply planted in me.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Confessions Of A Mask'.
58. “He felt that taking naps was much more beneficial than confronting catastrophes.”
- Yukio Mishima, 'Spring Snow'.
Inspirational Yukio Mishima Quotes
The Japanese film director and playwright’s inspirational works included many inspiring quotes.
59. “Most writers are perfectly normal in the head and just carry on like wild men; I behave normally but I'm sick inside.”
- Yukio Mishima.
60. “The philosophy that prepares a revolution and the sentiment that underpins the philosophy have, in every case the two pillars of nihilism and mysticism.”
- Yukio Mishima.
61. “Because the fact of not being understood by other people had become my only real source of pride, I was never confronted by any impulse to express things and to make others understand something that I knew.”
- Yukio Mishima.
62. “But there is no such thing as individual knowledge, a particular knowledge belonging to one special person or group. Knowledge is the sea of humanity, the field of humanity, the general condition of human existence.”
- Yukio Mishima.
63. “For even in the triviality of a single playing card missing from a deck, the world's order is inevitably turned awry.”
- Yukio Mishima.
64. “I was born with gloomy nature. I do not think I have ever known what it is to be cheerful and at ease.”
- Yukio Mishima, ‘The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion’.
65. “A man may be hard to persuade by rational argument while he is easily swayed by a display of passion, even if it is feigned.”
- Yukio Mishima.
66. “All six of us are geniuses. And the world, as you know, is empty.”
- Yukio Mishima.
67. “Man does not live simply in order to die.”
- Yukio Mishima.
68. “We all know that the world is empty and that the important thing, the only thing, is to try to maintain order in that emptiness.”
- Yukio Mishima.
69. “The path we're taking is not a road, Kiyo, it's a pier, and it ends someplace where the sea begins.”
- Yukio Mishima.
70. “I come out on the stage expecting the audience to weep, and instead they burst out laughing.”
- Yukio Mishima.
71. “Other people must be destroyed. In order that I might truly face the sun, the world itself must be destroyed.”
- Yukio Mishima, ‘The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion’.
72. “However, as words become particularized, and as men begin - in however small a way - to use them in personal, arbitrary ways, so their transformation into art begins.”
- Yukio Mishima, ‘Sun And Steel’.
73. “There’s the matter of picking the time. There’s such a thing as the favorable moment. Determination alone counts for nothing.”
- Yukio Mishima.
74. “Prudery is a form of selfishness, a means of self-protection made necessary by the strength of one's own desires.”
- Yukio Mishima.
75. “A man must despise himself before others can despise him.”
- Yukio Mishima.
76. “There isn't any fear in existence itself, or any uncertainty, but living creates it.”
- Yukio Mishima.
77. “It is a common failing of childhood to think that if one makes a hero out of a demon the demon will be satisfied.”
- Yukio Mishima.
78. “A man isn't tiny or giant enough to defeat anything.”
- Yukio Mishima.
79. “Human beings, Isao realized, could descend to communicating their feelings like dogs barking in the distance on a cold night.”
- Yukio Mishima.
Insightful Yukio Mishima Quotes
Below are some insightful Yukio Mishima quotes that we love, to inspire young writers to write from the heart.
80. “For me, beauty is always retreating from one’s grasp: the only thing I consider important is what existed once, or ought to have existed.”
- Yukio Mishima.
81. “The perfectly ordinary girl and the great philosopher are alike: for both, the smallest triviality can become the vision that wipes out the world.”
- Yukio Mishima.
82. “In his heart, he always preferred the actuality of loss to the fear of it.”
- Yukio Mishima.
83. “Kensuke and his wife had, like all bored people, a sense of kindness that was close to disease.”
- Yukio Mishima.
84. “Still, the loss of something is significant, and I think that loss is the necessary source of a new manifestation.”
- Yukio Mishima.
85. “Thus in a single phrase I can define the great illusion concerning 'love' in this world. It is the effort to join reality with the apparition.”
- Yukio Mishima.
86. “Ever since then violent anticipation has always been an anguish rather than joy for me.”
- Yukio Mishima.
87. “A person who has been seriously wounded does not demand that the bandages that save his life be clean.”
- Yukio Mishima.
88. “Go-go hall on my way home from school.”
- Yukio Mishima.
89. “A father is a reality-concealing machine, a machine for dishing up lies to kids, and that isn't even the worst of it: secretly he believes that he represents reality.”
- Yukio Mishima.
90. “How dearly, indeed, I loved my pit, my dusky room, the area of my desk with its piles of books! How I enjoyed introspection, shrouded myself in cogitation; with what rapture did I listen for the rustling of frail insects in the thickets of my nerves!”
- Yukio Mishima.
91. “Her nose was perfect; her lips exquisite. Like a master placing a go stone on the board after long deliberation, he placed the details of her beauty one by one in the misty dark and drew back to savour them.”
- Yukio Mishima.
92. “If my self was my dwelling, then my body resembled an orchard that surrounded it. I could either cultivate that orchard to its capacity or leave it for the weeds to run riot in.”
- Yukio Mishima.
93. “The instant that the blade tore open his flesh, the bright disk of the sun soared up and exploded behind his eyelids.”
- Yukio Mishima.
94. “Mine was the unbearable jealousy a cultured pearl must feel toward a genuine one. Or can there be such a thing in this world as a man who is jealous of the woman who loves him, precisely because of her love?”
- Yukio Mishima.
95. “That which proceeds from a man’s soul shall shape his soul; that which proceeds from his speech shall shape his speech, and deeds that proceed from his body shall shape his body.”
- Yukio Mishima.
96. “I had been handed what might be called a full menu of all the troubles in my life while still too young to read it. But all I had to do was spread my napkin and face the table.”
- Yukio Mishima.
97. “Again and again, the cicada’s untiring cry pierced the sultry summer air like a needle at work on thick cotton cloth.”
- Yukio Mishima.
98. “Why are we all burdened with the duty to destroy everything, change everything, entrust everything to impermanency? Is it this unpleasant duty that the world calls life?”
- Yukio Mishima.
99. “Man always finds the omens he wants.”
- Yukio Mishima.
100. “What more could I have done when I did not know that to love is both to seek and to be sought? For me love was nothing but a dialogue of little riddles, with no answers given.”
- Yukio Mishima.
At Kidadl, we have created amazing family-friendly quotes for you! If you liked our suggestions for the best Yukio Mishima quotes from the Japanese author, playwright and director, then why not check out these Jackie Chan quotes or your name quotes for more?
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Bachelor of Arts specializing in French with Film Studies, Bachelor of Arts (Year Abroad) specializing in Literature, History, Language, Media, and Art
Georgia StoneBachelor of Arts specializing in French with Film Studies, Bachelor of Arts (Year Abroad) specializing in Literature, History, Language, Media, and Art
Georgia is an experienced Content Manager with a degree in French and Film Studies from King's College London and Bachelors degree from Université Paris-Sorbonne. Her passion for exploring the world and experiencing different cultures was sparked during her childhood in Switzerland and her year abroad in Paris. In her spare time, Georgia enjoys using London's excellent travel connections to explore further afield.
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