Ryunosuke Akutagawa Quotes & Sayings

Chained inside the carriage is a sinful woman. When we set the carriage afire, her flesh will be roasted, her bones will be charred: she will die an agonizing death. Never again will you have such a perfect model for the screen. Do not fail to watch as her snow-white flesh erupts in flames. See and remember her long black hair dancing in a whirl of sparks! — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

I have heard unsavory rumors about you and the umbrella-maker's daughter — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Isn't there someone kind enough to come strangle me in my sleep? — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Life is not worth a single line of Baudelaire."
-from "The Life of a Stupid Man — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Directly beneath the Lotus Pond of Paradise lay the lower depths of Hell, and as He peered through the crystalline waters, He could see the River of Three Crossings and the Mountain of Needles as clearly as if He were viewing pictures in a peep-box. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Life is more hellish than hell itself. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

While still a student, Napoleon had written on the last page of his geography book: "St. Helena. Small island." This may have been what we call a coincidence, but the thought must certainly have aroused terror in him in his last days. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

It is important-even necessary-for us to become acutely aware of the fact that we can't trust ourselves. The only ones you can trust to some extent are people who really know that. We had better get this straight. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

No matter how accomplished one might be in any branch of learning or art, one would have to be condemned to hell, if on where not endowed with th five cardinal virtues of Confucius-benevolence, justice, courtesy, wisdom and fidelity — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

We could see the parapet of Ryougoku Bridge, arching above the waves that flickered in the faint mid-autumn twilight and against the sky, as though an immense black Chinese ink stroke had been brushed across it. The silhouettes of the traffic, horses and carriages soon faded into the vaporous mist, and now all that could be seen were the dots of reddish light from the passengers' lanterns, rapidly passing to and fro in the darkness like small winter cherries. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

It is unfortunate for the gods that, unlike us, they cannot commit suicide. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Do I still love this woman? he asked himself. He was in the habit of observing himself so closely that the answer came as a surprise to him: I do. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

One chilly autumn evening, he was reminded of the painter by a stalk of corn: the way it stood there armed in its rough coat of leaves, exposing its delicate roots atop the mounded earth like so many nerves, it was also a portrait of his own most vulnerable self. The discovery only served to increase his melancholy. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Yes
or rather, it's not so much that I want to die as that I'm tired of living. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Great robber though he was, Kandata could only trash about like a dying frog as he choked on the blood of the pond. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

As he thought about his life, he felt both tears and mockery welling up inside him. All that lay before him was madness or suicide. He walked down the darkening street alone, determined now to wait for the destiny that would come to annihilate him. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

When I kill a man, I do it with my sword, but people like you don't use swords. You gentlemen kill with your power, with your money, and sometimes just with your words: you tell people you're doing them a favor. True, no blood flows, the man is still alive, but you've killed him all the same. I don't know whose sin is greater - yours or mine. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

I don't have the strength to keep writing this. To go on living with this feeling is painful beyond description. Isn't there someone kind enough to strangle me in my sleep? — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

At twenty-nine, life no longer held any brightness for him, but Voltaire supplied him with man-made wings.
Spreading these man-made wings, he soared with ease into the sky. The higher he flew, the farther below him sank the joys and sorrows of a life bathed in the light of the intellect. Dropping ironies and smiles upon the shabby towns below, he climbed through the open sky, straight for the sun
as if he had forgotten about that ancient Greek who plunged to his death in the ocean when his man-made wings were singed by the sun."
-from "The Life of a Stupid Man — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

This is all for the sake of the House, he told himself, but behind his resolve he sensed, indistinctly, a certain effort at self-vindication, and the awareness hovered there like a barely perceptible halo around the moon. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

17. Butterfly
A butterfly fluttered its wings in a wind thick with the smell of seaweed. His dry lips felt the touch of the butterfly for the briefest instant, yet the wisp of wing dust still shone on his lips years later. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Still more horrible was the color of the flames that licked the latticed cabin vents before shooting skyward, as though - might I say? - the sun itself had crashed to earth, spewing its heavenly fire in all directions. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

He was said to have survived starvation by eating human flesh, after which he had the strength to tear out the antlers of a living stag with his bare hands. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

As rumor had said, he found several corpses strewn carelessly about the floor. Since the glow of the light was feeble, he could not count the number. He could only see that some were naked and others clothed. Some of them were women, and all were lolling on the floor with their mouths open or their arms outstretched showing no more signs of life than so many clay dolls. One would doubt they had ever been alive, so eternally silent they were. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

I may wear the skin of an urbane sophisticate, but in this manuscript I invite you to strip it off and laugh at my stupidity. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

These works are handed down from teacher to pupil, from parent to child, almost without question, like DNA. They are memorized, recited, discussed in book reports, included in university entrance exams, and once the student is grown up, they become a source for quotation. They are made into movies again and again, they are parodied, and inevitably they become the object of ambitious young writers' revolt and contempt. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

That's because, in a way different from what you meant by it, you can't trust anybody." Major Kimura lit a new cigar and, smiling, continued in tones that were almost exultantly cheerful. "It is important - even necessary - for us to become acutely aware of the fact that we can't trust ourselves. The only ones you can trust to some extent are people who really know that. We had better get this straight. Otherwise, our own characters' heads could fall off like Xiao-er's at any time. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

I may be a lunatic, but then, wasn't my lunacy caused by a monster that lurks at the bottom of every human mind? Those who call me a madman and spurn me may become lunatics tomorrow. They harbor the same monster. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Yes, sir. Certainly, it was I who found the body. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

A shimmering of heat
Outside the grave
Alone I dwell. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

He moved on from Anatole France to the eighteenth-century philosophers, though not to Rousseau. Perhaps this was because one side of him - the side easily moved by passion - was too close to Rousseau. Instead, he approached the author of 'Candide', who was closer to another side of him - the cool and richly intellectual side.
At twenty-nine, life no longer held any brightness for him, but Voltaire supplied him with man-made wings.
Spreading these man-made wings, he soared with ease into the sky. The higher he flew, the farther below him sank the joys and sorrows of a life bathed in the light of intellect. Dropping ironies and smiles upon the shabby towns below, he climbed through the open sky, straight for the sun - as if he had forgotten about that ancient Greek who plunged to his death in the ocean when his man-made wings were singed by the sun. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

People say they need freedom, but in fact, nobody wants freedom. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

People used to say that on moonless nights Her Ladyship's broad-skirted scarlet trousers would glide eerily along the outdoor corridor, never touching the floor. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

This passion for pictures gave him a whole new way of looking at the world. He began to pay constant attention to the curve of a branch or the swell of a woman's cheek. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

What is the life of a human being - a drop of dew, a flash of lightning? This is so sad, so sad. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

As you can imagine, those who had fallen this far had been so worn down by their tortures in the seven other hells that they no longer had the strength to cry out. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Time and tide wait for no man. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

I could wish for nothing more than to die for a childish dream in which I truly believed. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

I have no conscience at all
least of all an artistic conscience. All I have is nerves. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

E understood far more deeply than anyone else the loneliness that lurked beneath his jaunty mask. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Everyone is the same under the skin. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

He felt so lost, he said later, that the familiar studio felt like a haunted valley deep in the mountains, with the smell of rotting leaves, the spray of a waterfall, the sour fumes of fruit stashed away by a monkey; even the dim glow of the master's oil lamp on its tripod looked to him like misty moonlight in the hills. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

The human heart harbors two conflicting sentiments. Everyone of course sympathizes with people who suffer misfortunes. Yet when those people manage to overcome their misfortunes, we feel a certain disappointment. We may even feel (to overstate the case somewhat) a desire to plunge them back into those misfortunes. And before we know it, we come (if only passively) to harbor some degree of hostility toward them. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

I could have sworn that the man's eyes were no longer watching his daughter dying in agony, that instead the gorgeous colors of flames and the sight of a woman suffering in them were giving him joy beyond measure. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

The cable was still sending sharp sparks into the air. He could think of nothing in life that he especially desired, but those purple sparks
those wildly-blooming flowers of fire
he would trade his life for the chance to hold them in his hands."
-from "The Life of a Stupid Man — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

O-suzu left whatever work she was doing at her sewing machine and dragged Takeo back to O-yoshi and her son.
How dare you behave so selfishly! Now tell O-yoshi-san that you are sorry. Get down on the mats and make a proper bow! — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

He wanted to live life so intensely that he could die at any moment without regrets. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

He disliked his own lies as much as his parents', but still he continued to lie
boldly and cunningly. He did this primarily out of need, but also for the pathological pleasure of killing a god. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

The pale whiteness of her upturned face as she choked on the smoke; the tangled length of her hair as she tried to shake the flames from it; the beauty of her cherry-blossom robe as it burst into flame: it was all so cruel, so terrible! — Ryunosuke Akutagawa

A man sometimes devotes his life to a desire which he is not sure will ever be fulfilled. Those who laugh at this folly are, after all, no more than mere spectators of life. — Ryunosuke Akutagawa