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Quotes by Japanese Authors


"I speak of the old Japan, because out of the ashes of the old Japan there has risen a new Japan."

"I welcome challenges. I triumph on them, it helps me grow. Without the challenges that I have faced, I may not be where I am at all."

"I felt slightly superior to student politics, for instance. I had no reason to think this, but I thought of myself as slightly more seasoned. I became quite cynical talking to my student friends."

"The net is not a net until it begins to work. Work your network today!"


"I could not understand how it could move under its own power. And when it had driven past me, without even thinking why I found myself chasing it down the road, as hard as I could run."


"Thus, the questions we should ask here are what makes the current economic upswing different from the past two recoveries, and whether such differences are sufficient for the economy to reach the sustained growth path."

"It is the duty of youths to war against indiscipline and corruption because they are the leaders of tomorrow."

"Now is the time to enliven, ennoble and enrich your life's tapestry."

"And it came to me then. That we were wonderful traveling companions but in the end no more than lonely lumps of metal in their own separate orbits. From far off they look like beautiful shooting stars, but in reality they're nothing more than prisons, where each of us is locked up alone, going nowhere. When the orbits of these two satellites of ours happened to cross paths, we could be together. Maybe even open our hearts to each other. But that was only for the briefest moment. In the next instant we'd be in absolute solitude. Until we burned up and became nothing."


"I would like my architecture to inspire people to use their own resources, to move into the future."


"The aging and declining population will have far-reaching impacts. Declining fertility rates will possibly increase immigration. The structure of family and society will inevitably change."

"Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye."

"Julie Dryfus and I were both afraid of heights and in one scene, I had to be quite high up and I was rather terrified, but Julie was very kind, encouraging me and we got through that together."

"I do feel part of that generation of people who were rather idealistic in the '70s and became disillusioned in the '80s. Not just about social services issues, but the world."

"Memory is quite central for me. Part of it is that I like the actual texture of writing through memory."

"I feel however, that we architects have a special duty and mission... (to contribute) to the socio-cultural development of architecture and urban planning."

"Stop making someone else's looks your '#goals'. By all means aspire to be a better version of your current self, but don't glorify others when you yourself are glorious."

"If you notice yourself viewing a potential partner as a 'work in progress', that's a sign to find someone else."


"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few."

"All that you need to be successful and significant in life is in and around you."

"Like it or not, we are all in business and the products we are selling is our unique selves."


"I don't like going to the gym because I don't like being with people I don't know in that intense environment."

"All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma."

"I was feeling lonely without her, but the fact that I could feel lonely at all was consolation. Loneliness wasn't such a bad feeling. It was like the stillness of the pin oak after the little birds had flown off."

"When I look back at myself at age twenty, what I remember most is being alone and lonely. I had no girlfriend to warm my body or my soul, no friends I could open up to. No clue what I should do every day, no vision for the future. For the most part, I remained hidden away, deep within myself. Sometimes, I'd go a week without talking to anybody."

"The great principle of Western society is that competition rules here as it rules in everything else. The best man - that is to say, the strongest and cleverest - is likely to get the best woman, in the sense of the most beautiful person."

"If I choose to write about sheep, it's just because I happened to write about sheep. There is no deep significance."

"I talked about the barriers created by monopolies. I said that it was the role of government to break up these monopolies and that we couldn't do it alone."


"We have listened here to the delegates who have recalled the terrible human suffering, and the great material destruction of the late war in the Pacific. It is with feelings of sorrow that we recall the part played in that catastrophic human experience by the old Japan."

"But even so, every now and then I would feel a violent stab of loneliness. The very water I drink, the very air I breathe, would feel like long, sharp needles. The pages of a book in my hands would take on the threatening metallic gleam of razor blades. I could hear the roots of loneliness creeping through me when the world was hushed at four o'clock in the morning."

"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."


"We will not fail your expectations of us as a new nation dedicated to peace, democracy, and freedom."


"Upon receiving my notification of acceptance to the university, my parents noticed that they were obliged to submit to the university, among other things, a copy of my official family register. After much mental anguish, they decided to inform me of the secret of my birth."


"The aging and decreasing population is a serious problem in many developed countries today. In Japan's case, these demographic changes are taking place at a more rapid pace than any other country has ever experienced."

"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

"In my opinion, further consideration of those views will help us find a way out of the current impasse, and reveal to us the kinds of buildings and cities required by the informational society."
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