. but one might also say that they continued to the very end to value the beauty they had cultivated their entire lives, that they aestheticized even their gravestones. Yasunari Kawabata, 'Chrysanthemum in the Rock'.

You can't kick or tread on an illusion that you harbor. All you can do is overturn yourself. Yasunari Kawabata, 'The Old Capital'.

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Sometimes, however, such an incident sets in motion a sort of group psychology that lets only the same simple thoughts come to everyone. It is not easy to stand outside. It is not easy to register a dissent. Yukio Mishima, 'Death in Midsummer'.

They had become conditioned to death, and, as when people are conditioned to depravity, they had come to feel that life held nothing they need fear. Yukio Mishima, 'Death in Midsummer'.

The process by which so fearful an event could melt back into everyday life brought on a new sort of fear, mixed with shame, as if they had committed a crime that was finally to go undetected. Yukio Mishima, 'Death in Midsummer'.

Who can stand in defiance of fate? If the fate between us is to be unfortunate and mad, we must pity each other in order to put fate behind us. Takeo Arishima, 'Weeds Crushed by Stones'.

True today, from the midst of the emptiness in which culture has collapsed, the single song that we poets can sing is none other than that of the nihilistic drifter, a song given rhythms with contradictions. Sakutarō Hagiwara, 'Return to Japan'.

When human beings see death before their eyes, they begin to reach the sublime - a state beyond all good and evil. At such moments, a human being becomes more holy than the figure of God himself. Shōson Nagahara, 'The Tale of Osato'.

The path I should walk down. Yes, if I were to find fulfillment on this path, my spirit would surely live on forever. Shōson Nagahara, 'The Tale of Osato'.

From war to defeat, from defeat to victory, the history of mankind has always been written in blood. The vagaries of war determine the rise and fall of nations. Shōson Nagahara, 'The Tale of Osato'.

The words that live on after you die - that's the only thing that truly makes any sense. Shōson Nagahara, 'Lament in the Night'.

And yet you, the poet, who passed away fringing the borders of life with a silver thread of weariness! How can I speak of that laudable irony?. Hideo Kobayashi, on Tarō Tominaga.

No matter how short a life may be, a sincere truth that lives through it always possesses an absolute. Hideo Kobayashi, on Tarō Tominaga.

I will not lament over how few works he has left us. I will not lament over how many more songs he would have sung for us, had be not died so young - if the destiny of all human songs were such. Hideo Kobayashi, on Tarō Tominaga.

When there is no purpose, the human condition is revealed in a very blatant and transparent way. Perhaps that's why the devil's eyes are so clear. Takeo Arishima, 'Weeds Crushed by Stones'.

I died of a bitter heart, and you have nothing more to say. How dare you worship a sinner like me?. Takeo Arishima, 'Weeds Crushed by Stones'.

. I was saddened by my own empty recollections. Human beings can become more or less than they are in an instant. That is where the hardness of the human heart lies. Takeo Arishima, 'Weeds Crushed by Stones'.

Who can stand in defiance of fate? If the fate between us is to be unfortunate and mad, we must pity each other in order to put fate behind us. Takeo Arishima, 'Weeds Crushed by Stones'.

Part of genius is clearly a talent that can cause scandal. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 'Shuju no Kotoba'.

For it is by such an irrational death, such a magnificent slaughter of youth, that our genuine tragedy will be fulfilled. Otherwise, our deaths will be nothing more than a foolish sacrifice. Yukio Mishima, 'Voices of the Heroic Dead'.