59 Quotes by Murasaki Shikibu

One ought not to be unkind to a woman merely on account of her plainness, any more than one had a right to take liberties with her merely because she was handsome.

There are as many sorts of women as there are women.

In a certain reign there was a lady not of the first rank whom the emperor loved more than any of the others. The grand ladies with high ambitions thought her a presumptuous upstart, and lesser ladies were still more resentful. Everything she did offended someone.

A night of endless dreams, inconsequent and wild, is this my life; none more worth telling than the rest.

Though the body moves, the soul may stay behind.

Old age is a disease from which there is no recovery but the old nun’s recent attack had certainly been brought on chiefly by the fatigue of so much travelling.

No penance can your hard heart find save such as you long since have taught me to endure.

It is indeed in many ways more comfortable to belong to that section of society whose action are not publicly canvassed and discussed.

Intimacy between stepchildren and stepparents is indeed proverbially difficult.