Hearn Quotes & Sayings

Absolutely delightful, at first for its unspoiled picture of late-nineteenth-century Japan as seen through the eyes of three remarkable but very different Americans, [the missionary William Elliot Griffis [1843-1928], the scientist Edward Sylvester Morse [1838-1925], and the writer Lafcadio Hearn], and then for the marvelous reconstruction of how Japan worked on their minds, radically changing their perceptions of the country and the whole relationship between East and West
between the barbarian and the civilized. The book is a tour de force. — Edwin O. Reischauer

Recycle the body through fire; scatter the remains back into the earth. — Denis Hearn

Chick Hearn was my favorite broadcaster ever - he's the one who taught me to think basketball, how to love basketball. — Bill Walton

A great many things which in times of lesser knowledge we imagined to be superstitious or useless, prove today on examination to have been of immense value to mankind. — Lafcadio Hearn

In order to comprehend the beauty of a Japanese garden, it is necessary to understand - or at least to learn to understand - the beauty of stone. — Lafcadio Hearn

I guess I never grew up. I was still reading kids' books in high school and college. I was always interested in writing or illustrating children's books, and I started collecting out-of-print books when I was about 10 years old. — Michael Patrick Hearn

It was my sister's fault. She brought...books home before I was old enough to check them out of the library myself. — Michael Patrick Hearn

The fact, however, to which I want to call attention is that the master of Judo never relies upon his own strength. He scarcely uses his own strength in the greatest emergency. Then what does he use? Simply the strength of his antagonist. The force of the enemy is the only means by which that enemy is overcome. — Lafcadio Hearn

There was very little suicide among the men of the North, because every man considered it his duty to get killed, not to kill himself; and to kill himself would have seemed cowardly, as implying fear of being killed by others. — Lafcadio Hearn

Radio is the art form of sports casting. If you're any good, you can do a great job on radio. — Chick Hearn

But every great scripture, whether Hebrew, Indian, Persian, or Chinese, apart from its religious value will be found to have some rare and special beauty of its own; and in this respect the original Bible stands very high as a monument of sublime poetry and of artistic prose. — Lafcadio Hearn

It was in this atmosphere of war, heroism, and controversy that my wife's grandmother, Johanna Boel Sigurdardottir, met and fell in love with Samuel Emmett Hearn Jr. He was a gallant soldier, and she was a natural beauty. — Gudjon Bergmann

Frank Baum knew at once he had written something special when he completed 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.' — Michael Patrick Hearn

To ancient Chinese fancy, the Milky Way was a luminous river, - the River of Heaven, - the Silver Stream. — Lafcadio Hearn

Perhaps there is an idea among Japanese students that one general difference between Japanese and Western poetry is that the former cultivates short forms and the latter longer ones, gut this is only in part true. — Lafcadio Hearn

Concering the power of the written word — Julie Hearn

My friends are much more dangerous than my enemies. These latter - with infinite subtlety - spin webs to keep me out of places where I hate to go, - and tell stories of me to people whom it would be vanity and vexation to meet; - and they help me so much by their unconscious aid that I almost love them. — Lafcadio Hearn

It has been wisely observed by the greatest of modern thinkers that mankind has progressed more rapidly in every other respect than in morality. — Lafcadio Hearn

Outcome of the present struggle between Russia and Japan, its significance lies in the fact that a nation of the East, equipped with Western weapons and girding itself with Western energy of will, is deliberately measuring strength against one of — Lafcadio Hearn

Forget trying to pass for normal. Follow your geekdom. Embrace nerditude. In the immortal words of Lafcadio Hearn, a geek of incredible obscurity whose work is still in print after a hundred years, "Woo the muse of the odd." You may be a geek. You may have geek written all over you. You should aim to be one geek they'll never forget. Don't aim to be civilized. Don't hope that straight people will keep you on as some sort of pet. To hell with them. You should fully realize what society has made of you and take a terrible revenge. Get weird. Get way weird. Get dangerously weird. Get sophisticatedly, thoroughly weird, and don't do it halfway. Put every ounce of horsepower you have behind it. Don't become a well-rounded person. Well-rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a pufferfish. — Bruce Sterling

The bonds between husband and wife spring from deep laws of destiny and should not be broken lightly. — Lian Hearn

Don't you know the man whose life you spare will always hate you? — Lian Hearn

One thing is certain: the lesson of Bobby Sands's determination comes through. One image returns over and over again: a naked man locked up twenty-four hours in a cell, without even the most rudimentary comforts or reading materials. He turns to his cellmate and chastises him for sleeping all day. "It's a waste of your opportunities, isn't it? — Denis O'Hearn

Read Hearn, the most eloquent and truthful interpreter of the Japanese mind, and you see the working of that mind to be an example of the working of Bushido. — Inazo Nitobe

Whatever doubts or vexations one has in Japan, it is only necessary to ask one's self: Well, who are the best people to live with? — Lafcadio Hearn

I am what I am and what I have always been, a poor soul on a journey. — Lian Hearn

The Western poet and writer of romance has exactly the same kind of difficulty in comprehending Eastern subjects as you have in comprehending Western subjects. — Lafcadio Hearn

I've got to be right on top of the action, or else all those people watching the game will say, 'This guy's not very good.' — Chick Hearn

It is true that short forms of poetry have been cultivated in the Far East more than in modern Europe; but in all European literature short forms of poetry are to be found - indeed quite as short as anything in Japanese. — Lafcadio Hearn

The dollar that's being paid the players has hurt the game. The players take advantage of coaches. The players' attitude is, "I make more than you, so don't tell me what to do." — Chick Hearn

It was as hot as ever, even the turn of the moon bringing no relief, and the cries of cicadas fell like showers around me. — Lian Hearn

I believe the test of government is the contentment of the people. — Lian Hearn

Chick Hearn taught me how to play basketball, how to think about basketball. He taught me how to love basketball. — Roland Lazenby

For this reason, to study English literature without some general knowledge of the relation of the Bible to that literature would be to leave one's literary education very incomplete. — Lafcadio Hearn

How sweet Japanese woman is! All the possibilities of the race for goodness seem to be concentrated in her. — Lafcadio Hearn

Samuel Marshak was one of the founders of modern Russian children's literature. Soviet children used to know his poems by heart, but only since glasnost have American editors shown any interest in issuing his poems here. — Michael Patrick Hearn

Portland can put the champagne away and get out the bottled water, 'cause that's all they're gonna drink on their way home! — Chick Hearn

Players are spoiled by charter airplanes, the finest hotels, a big per diem every day. — Chick Hearn

Nature has no consolation for us. Out of her formlessness issues forms which return to formlessness, - that is all. The plant becomes clay; the clay becomes a plant. When the plant turns to clay, what becomes of the vibration which was its life? Does it go on existing viewlessly, like the forces that shape spectres of frondage in the frost upon a window-pane? — Lafcadio Hearn

There is scarcely any great author in European literature, old or new, who has not distinguished himself in his treatment of the supernatural. In English literature, I believe there is no exception from the time of the Anglo-Saxon poets to Shakespeare, and from Shakespeare to our own day. And this introduces us to the consideration of a general and remarkable fact, a fact that I do not remember to have seen in any books, but which is of very great philosophical importance: there is something ghostly in all great art, whether of literature, music, sculpture, or architecture. It touches something within us that relates to infinity — Lafcadio Hearn

Hearn's death was happily smudged, or at least on the surface, but ever since the second ambush he had been feeling the apprehension of a man in a dream who knows he is guilty, is waiting for his punishment, and cannot remember his crime. — Norman Mailer

Perhaps, after trillions of ages burning in different dynasties of suns, the very best of me may come together again. — Lafcadio Hearn

It is no exaggeration to say that the English Bible is, next to Shakespeare, the greatest work in English literature, and that it will have much more influence than even Shakespeare upon the written and spoken language of the English race. — Lafcadio Hearn

We owe more to our illusions than to our knowledge — Lafcadio Hearn

But what is after all the happiness of mere power? There is a greater happiness possible than to be lord of heaven and earth; that is the happiness of being truly loved. — Lafcadio Hearn

All good work is done the way ants do things: Little by little. — Lafcadio Hearn

Most people can't talk as fast as I do. I'm not proud of that. That's God-given. — Chick Hearn

Contemporary literature in the West has shown some signs of ethical change. — Lafcadio Hearn

In the world of reality the more beautiful a work of art, the longer, we may be sure, was the time required to make it, and the greater the number of different minds which assisted in its development. — Lafcadio Hearn

Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become a study for archaeologists ... but it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio. — Lafcadio Hearn

The world is always outside. And it is in the world that we must live. — Lian Hearn

But I confess that "my mind to me a kingdom is"
not! Rather it is a fantastical republic, daily troubled by more revolutions than ever occurred in South America ... — Lafcadio Hearn

Any idealism is a proper subject for art. — Lafcadio Hearn

I really loved Kiyoyori-in the way you people love each other, and we, not so much. I had never felt that before. I should be able to pass away without regret, as easily as the leaf falls from the tree in autumn, but the idea of never seeing him again, in whatever form, fills me with sorrow. I cling to life for his sake. This is what love does to you Shikanoko. See how the false wolf grows more real every day, because it has become attached to you. It shivers at your approach and wags its tail at the sound of your voice. It has made you its master, it lives for your affection. But, as your saints teach and we have always known, attachment enslaves you. Only those free from it see the world as it really is and have power over themselves and all things. — Lian Hearn

She entered a state where prayer and poetry became one and the everyday world seemed full of holiness and significance. — Lian Hearn

I am not made for despair — Lian Hearn

Accordingly the Northern races of Europe found their inspiration in the Bible; and the enthusiasm for it has not yet quite faded away. — Lafcadio Hearn

Anybody who doesn't think I want the Lakers to win is a fool. But I'm no homer. — Chick Hearn

How was it possible for the world to be so beautiful and so cruel at the same time? — Lian Hearn

We all have a past. We all have a future. But all we really have is right now. You can change your destiny in one moment, if only you refuse to do what you once did. — Bonnie Hearn Hill

My work is a love for me; I'd do it for free, but don't tell my bosses. — Chick Hearn

The less people think of you, the more they will reveal to you or in your presence. — Lian Hearn

But the history of the changes produced by a universal idea is not a history of changes in the individual, but of changes brought about by the successive efforts of millions of individuals in the course of many generations. — Lafcadio Hearn

There is no Hell, other than that which men make on earth. — Lian Hearn

On the Gulf side of these islands you may observe that the trees - where there are any trees - all bend away from the sea; and, even of bright, hot days when the wind sleeps, there is something grotesquely pathetic in their look of agonized terror. A group of oaks ... I remember as especially suggestive: five stooping silhouettes in line against the horizon, like fleeing women with streaming garments and wind-blown hair, - bowing grievously and thrusting out arms desperately northward as to save themselves from falling. And they are being pursued indeed; - for the sea is devouring the land. — Lafcadio Hearn

I do something that I don't think anyone else does. I warm up before a game. Baseball and basketball players warm up, so why shouldn't the announcer warm up? — Chick Hearn

What does the blessing of heaven mean? We know the kirin is just an animal, not a mythical creature.
It has become a symbol now ... That is the way human beings deal with the world. — Lian Hearn

The tea ceremony requires years of training and practice ... yet the whole of this art, as to its detail, signifies no more than the making and serving of a cup of tea. The supremely important matter is that the act be performed in the most perfect, most polite, most graceful, most charming manner possible. — Lafcadio Hearn

Broad tolerance in the matter of beliefs is necessarily a part of the new ethics. — Lafcadio Hearn

I God, a very Gomorry on wheels! You lead the most exciting life I know of, and complain more about it than any two well-off bastards in the running. I am glad to hear you sound like your old self, though I never hearn of no Jonathan with two Davids.
Top of this letter is an allusion to that wonderful novel, The SotWeed Factor, in which Ebenezer Cooke, "poet and virgin," is about to be raped by a buncher sailors (they have him tied across a table in the fo'c'sle; he is saved by a raiding party of pirates, one of whom strides into the scene and says, "I God, this here ship's a very floatin' Gomorry!"
Have come down with the flu since inditing the above. [ ... ]. The mail yestiddy brought a letter from Sam Beckett! asked to see Sappho and Arky. I sag with fatigue. Blessings.
Guy — Guy Davenport

As a result, the highly civilized man can endure incomparably more than the savage, whether of moral or physical strain. Being better able to control himself under all circumstances, he has a great advantage over the savage. — Lafcadio Hearn

Let your ideas be second-hand, and if possible tenth-hand, for then they will be far removed from that disturbing element - direct observation. Do not learn anything about this subject of mine - the French Revolution. Learn instead what I think that Enicharmon thought Urizen thought Gutch thought Ho-Yung thought Chi-Bo-Sing thought Lafcadio Hearn thought Carlyle thought Mirabeau said about the French Revolution. — E. M. Forster

It's what you do to yourself when you go mad with rage. You have no idea how much you can hurt yourself with your own strength. — Lian Hearn

Also in the boom of the big bell there is a quaintness of tone which wakens feelings, so strangely far-away from all the nineteenth-century part of me, that the faint blind stirrings of them make me afraid, - deliciously afraid. never do I hear that billowing peal but I become aware of a striving and a fluttering in the abyssal part of my ghost, - a sensation as of memories struggling to reach the light beyond the obscurations of a million million deaths and births. I hope to remain within hearing of that bell ... and, considering the possibility of being doomed to the state of a jiki-ketsu-geki, I want to have my chance of being reborn in some bamboo flower-cup, or mizutame, whence I might issue softly, singing my thin and pungent song, to bite some people that I know. — Lafcadio Hearn

French novels generally treat of the relations of women to the world and to lovers, after marriage; consequently there is a great deal in French novels about adultery, about improper relations between the sexes, about many things which the English public would not allow. — Lafcadio Hearn

Some persons have ventured to say that it is only since Englishmen ceased to believe in the Bible that they began to discover how beautiful it was. — Lafcadio Hearn

They reminded me of the people of my village, their indomitable spirit in the face of disaster, their unshakable belief that no matter what might befall them, life was basically good and the world benign. — Lian Hearn

One of the great defects of English books printed in the last century is the want of an index. — Lafcadio Hearn

The subject of Finnish poetry ought to have a special interest for the Japanese student, if only for the reason that Finnish poetry comes more closely in many respects to Japanese poetry than any other form of Western poetry. — Lafcadio Hearn

I may venture to say, loosely, that in Judo there is a sort of counter for every twist, wrench, pull, push or bend. Only the Judo expert does not oppose such movements at all. No, he yields to them. But he does much more than yield to them. He aids them with a wicked sleight that causes the assailant to put out his own shoulder, to fracture his own arm, or in a desparate case, even to break his own neck or back. — Lafcadio Hearn

Hile I was happy enough to pray to any god, knowing that they were simply different faces created by men, of one indivisible truth. — Lian Hearn

But just as the river is always at the door, so is the world always outside. And it is in the world that we have to live. — Lian Hearn

The game's in the refrigerator, the door's closed, the light's out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting hard and the Jell-O's jiggling, — Chick Hearn

When illusions are shattered by truth, talent is set free. — Lian Hearn

The painter had achieved what we would all like to do: capture time and make it stand still — Lian Hearn

Now I, like that Chinese devotee, must confess myself a very ignorant person, and naturally unable to hear the conversation of Ants. But the Fairy of Science sometimes touches my ears and eyes with her wand; and then, for a little time, I am able to hear things inaudible, and to perceive things imperceptible. — Lafcadio Hearn

The poet or the story-teller who cannot give the reader a little ghostly pleasure at times never can be either a really great writer or a great thinker. — Lafcadio Hearn

His polish-black hair was so silky that my first impulse was to stroke it. That's what beauty does to us. Our first thought is that of the child. Touch it. Make it mine. But the child grows up and learns what happens when you reach for those bright balloons bursting with colour. — Bonnie Hearn Hill

I craned my neck to see his face, which was pointed toward the wall. What looked like a puncture mark was visible on his neck. I held my fingers to a pulse point. The beating was faint. No wonder this man was the most quiet grown-up in the library. He was dying. — Shari Hearn

At last, in 1611, was made, under the auspices of King James, the famous King James version; and this is the great literary monument of the English language. — Lafcadio Hearn

You should never despise people because they haven't had your opportunities. — Lian Hearn

There are two methods for the literary study of any book - the first being the study of its thought and emotion; the second only that of its workmanship. A student of literature should study some of the Bible from both points of view. — Lafcadio Hearn

The time of illusion, then, is the beautiful moment of passion; it represents the artistic zone in which the poet or romance writer ought to be free to do the very best that he can. — Lafcadio Hearn

Is woman a religion? Well, perhaps you will have the chance of judging for yourselves if you go to America. There you will find men treating women with just the same respect formerly accorded only to religious dignitaries or to great nobles. — Lafcadio Hearn

The best way is to be strong enough to make your enemy think twice about attacking you, yet not so aggressive that he feels threatened. Keep your sword sheathed as long as you can, but once it is unsheathed, use it without hesitation. — Lian Hearn

A proof of really great art is that it is generally true - it seldom falls into the misapprehensions to which minor art is liable. — Lafcadio Hearn

Death comes suddenly and life is fragile and brief. No one can alter this either by prayers or spells. — Lian Hearn

No man can possibly know what life means, what the world means, until he has a child and loves it. And then the whole universe changes and nothing will ever again seem exactly as it seemed before. — Lafcadio Hearn

The highest duty of the man is not to his father, but to his wife; and for the sake of that woman he abandons all other earthly ties, should any of these happen to interfere with that relation. — Lafcadio Hearn

I learned embroidery," Kaede said, "But you can't kill anyone with a needle."
"You can," Shizuka said offhandedly. "I'll show you one day. — Lian Hearn