Some of my favourite quotes from Natsume Soseki’s “Kokoro”
“His curt and cold ways were not designed to express his dislike of me, but they were meant rather as a warning to me that I would not want him as a friend. It was because he despised himself that he refused to accept openheartedly the intimacy of others.”
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“You have never thought seriously of the reality of death, have you?”
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“A man capable of love, or should I say rather a man who was by nature incapable of not loving; but a man who could not wholeheartedly accept the love of another - such a one was Sensei.”
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“Youth is the loneliest time of all.”
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“But surely, when you are with me, you cannot rid yourself of your loneliness. I have not it in me to help you forget it. You will have to look elsewhere for the consolation you seek. And soon, you will find that you no longer want to visit me.”
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“I do not have the right to expect anything from the world.”
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“Before he could destroy his wife’s happiness, he destroyed himself.”
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“But remember, there is guilt in loving. And remember too, that in loving, there is something sacred.”
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“It is not you in particular that I distrust, but the whole of humanity.”
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“I bear with my loneliness now, in order to avoid greater loneliness in the years ahead. You see, loneliness is the price we have to pay for being born in this modern age, so full of freedom, independence, and our own egoistical selves.”
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“There is no such thing as a stereotype bad man in this world. Under normal conditions, everybody is more or less good, or, at least, ordinary. But tempt them, and they may suddenly change. That is what is so frightening about men. One must always be on one’s guard.”
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“Because of what happened to me, I have come to doubt everybody. In truth, I doubt you too. But for some reason, I do not want to doubt you. It may be because you seem so simple. Before I die, I should like to have one friend that I can truly trust. I wonder if you can be that friend. Are you really sincere?”
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“I was like a man who runs to the edge of a cliff, and looking down, sees that the abyss is bottomless. I was a coward. And like most cowards, I suffered because I could not decide.”
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“Without hesitation, I am about to force you into the shadows of this dark world of ours. But you must not fear. Gaze steadily into the shadows, and then take whatever will be of use to you in your own life.”
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“I was moved by your decision, albeit discourteous in expression, to grasp something that was alive within my soul. You wished to cut open my heart, and see the blood flow. I was then still alive. I did not want to die. That is why I refused you, and postponed the granting of your wish to another day. Now, I myself am about to cut open my own heart, and drench your face with my blood. And I shall be satisfied if, when my heart stops beating, a new life lodges itself in your breast.”
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“I believe that words uttered in passion contain a greater living truth than do those words which express thoughts rationally conceived. It is blood that moves the body. Words are not meant to stir the air only: they are capable of moving greater things.”
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“Why did I wait so long to die?”
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“My heart, which until then had felt tight with pain and fear, seemed to find relief in sorrow.”
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“I became as disgusted with myself as I had been with the rest of the world.”
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“But as soon as I tried to break my way through the cloud that surrounded me, a frighteningly powerful force would rush upon me from I know not where, and grip my heart tight, until I could not move. A voice would say to me: “You have no right to say anything. Stay where you are.” Whatever desire I might have had for action would suddenly leave me. After a moment, the desire would come back, and I would once more try to break through. Again, I would be restrained. In fury and grief, I would cry out: “Why do you stop me?”
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“My own past, which made me what I am, is a part of human experience. Only I can tell it. I do not think that my effort to do so honestly has been entirely purposeless. If my story helps you and others understand even a part of what we are, I shall be satisfied.”
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A story of a young man’s fascination with an unnamed older figure he referred to affectionately as “Sensei”. Sensei’s life seems to me to symbolize the end of an era and the start of a new one. The difference between the old and the new, the youthful and the beaten is crystallized by the narrator’s struggle to understand Sensei’s deeply buried pain and loneliness. One was earnest and passionate in his thirst for life and love, while the other had witnessed his own youthful pride and love cruelly stamped upon both by the flaws of man and by his own foolish mistakes. In the end, he passed on his wisdom of the solitary life he lived, and descended into the abyss.
