All past events worth recalling are dreams, and it is in their dream-like quality that the nostalgia lies, which is why there has to be something vague and unfocused in the past facts themselves for them to contribute to the mood of fantasy. Sōseki Natsume 'The Miner'

...he was uneasy to think that everything he couldn't fathom hung on the slight emotional displays of such moments, that other people would not stop finding in him something that went beyond what his consciousness was able to detect. Yukio Mishima, 'Forbidden Colors'

The vague nature of thought! The more transparent it becomes, the more it degenerates into a useless spectre of the bystander, and opaque thoughts are useful for action only by virtue of their opacity.  Yukio Mishima, 'Kyoko's House'

Every household is surely pregnant with some misfortune. The fair wind that propels the sailing ship along the sea lanes is basically the same as the terrible gale that leads it to misfortune. Yukio Mishima, 'Forbidden Colors'

...he was pushed down to the realm of beauty alone. Perhaps deeper. There, everything became lost; everything became resolved into spirit, into nothing but shadows, nothing but metaphors. Yukio Mishima, 'Forbidden Colors'

He did it out of the innocence that belonged to his unscrupulous, noble person and out of his ability to be brutally insensitive to another's feelings. It was courtly cruelty at its worst. Yukio Mishima, 'Forbidden Colors'

The unhappiness of other people when viewed through a window is more beautiful than when viewed from within. This is because unhappiness seldom crosses the window frame and springs upon us. Yukio Mishima, 'Forbidden Colors'

'Laughing Moon' Translation here: https://t.co/GsYiIYjHoi

One must not dismiss dreams as mere trifles simply because they evade the net of consciousness. Kōbō Abe, 'Laughing Moon'

When one looks at the world with a dead man's eyes, with what clarity the sublunary world bares its activities! Yukio Mishima, 'Forbidden Colors'

He was spirit itself - namely, a metaphor of the body. When should he be able to arise from this metaphor? Not only that, should he be content with his destiny? Yukio Mishima, 'Forbidden Colors'

'Sleep Induction Techniques' Translation here: https://t.co/oMOo6MvlPo

Murder and playing at murder might be two entirely separate, contradictory things. If so, then recent policies like the crackdown on model guns, for instance, might actually be promoting the public's savagery, contrary to the authorities' intentions. Kōbō Abe

In my experience, however enjoyable a dream may be, it never quite matches the joy of reality. Conversely, nightmares often surpass the anxieties and terrors of the waking world. Kōbō Abe, 'Laughing Moon'

What in the world is a purity that is close to a desire for vengeance? Yukio Mishima, 'Forbidden Colors'

And the shocking thing is they openly manipulate other people any way they see fit, educate them, and make them behave according to their own wishes... Sōseki, 'The Miner'

...human beings are the easiest things there are to control. They'll take the most outlandish orders with profound respect and, far from putting up a fuss, they'll thank you for them. Sōseki, 'The Miner'

Compared to infinity, nothingness; compared to nothingness, nothing; intermediate between nothing and everything. We cannot know anything with certainty, nor can we be completely unlearned. We are drifting in the middle, with no enemies in between. Hideo Kobayashi, on Pascal

There's a great deal in this world that one can't dismiss simply because one thinks it's a nuisance. Sōseki Natsume, 'Grass on the Wayside'

We must think about what man is in relation to the fundamental conditions of his existence, in which he is simply thrown into the world without purpose or necessity, and lives anxiously and dangerously. Hideo Kobayashi, 'About Criticism'