63 Quotes by Natsume Sōseki

Reflection may be essential to a scholar, but it’s taboo in social intercourse.

The call for political freedom took place long ago. The call for freedom of speech is also a thing of the past. Freedom is not a word to be used exclusively for phenomena such as this which are so easily given outward manifestation. I believe that we young men of the new age have encountered the moment in time when we must call for that great freedom, the freedom of the mind.

But if you ask what this spirit is;They give that cough and say;‘The Spirit of Japan is the Japanese Spirit,’Then they walk away;And when they’ve walked ten yards or so;They clear their throats of phlegm;And that clearing sound is the Japanese spirit;Manifest in them

Really, there’s nothing in the world as undependable as human beings.

Over the wintry forest, winds howl in rage with no leaves to blow.

But for me, the answer that I gave was a living truth. Was I not excited? 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 strike the air only: they are capable of moving greater things.

I’ll worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

Words are not meant to stir the air only: they are capable of moving greater things.

It is painfully easy to define human beings. They are beings who, for no good reason at all, create their own unnecessary suffering.