"True beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys."
— Yukio Mishima

"anything can become excusable when seen from the standpoint of the result"
— Yukio Mishima (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion)

"if the world changed, i could not exist, and if i changed, the world could not exist"
— Yukio Mishima (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion)

"What transforms this world is — knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world, while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is. When you look at the world with knowledge, you realize that things are unchangeable and at the same time are constantly being transformed."
— Yukio Mishima (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion)

"I do not mean to say that I viewed those desires of mine that deviated from accepted standards as normal and orthodox; nor do I mean that I labored under the mistaken impression that my friends possessed the same desires. Surprisingly enough, I was so engrossed in tales of romance that I devoted all my elegant dreams to thoughts of love between man and maid, and to marriage, exactly as though I were a young girl who knew nothing of the world. I tossed my love for Omi onto the rubbish heap of neglected riddles, never once searching deeply for its meaning. Now when I write the word love, when I write affection, my meaning is totally different from my understanding of the words at that time. I never even dreamed that such desires as I had felt toward Omi might have a significant connection with the realities of my "life.""
— Yukio Mishima (Confessions of a Mask)

"Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood."
— Yukio Mishima (Runaway Horses)

"Reiko had not kept a diary and was now denied the pleasure of assiduously rereading her record of the happiness of the past few months and consigning each page to the fire as she did so.

- Death in Midsummer and Other Stories"
— Yukio Mishima (Patriotism)