Secret Rendezvous Quotes

“Nothing is so awkward as a demonstration of humanity by the enemy.”
― Kōbō Abe, Secret Rendezvous

“One measure of a civilization, in fact, is the percentage of misfits in its society.”
― Abe Kōbō, Secret Rendezvous

“Only man has turned away from the law of survival of the fittest, taken up the weak and ailing, and guaranteed their right to survival. So heroes perish, but the weak live on. One measure of a civilisation, in fact, is the percentage of misfits in its society. There's even a political scientist (anonymous) who claims that our modern age is an age "of the patient, by the patient, for the patient".”
― Kōbō Abe, Secret Rendezvous

“When a person is hurt the important thing isn’t sympathy for the pain, but somebody to stop the bleeding, disinfect the wound, and sew it up. You have to treat the injured person not like a human being with a wound, but like a human wound. For a doctor who’s used to such relationships, nothing is more maddening than a patient who acts like a goddam human being. To keep from arousing his doctor’s anger, the patient tries to stop being human. The doctor becomes more and more alone, his nerves go on edge, and he drifts farther and farther from humanity. I guess you could even say a prejudice against patients is one requirement for a great doctor.”
― Kōbō Abe, Secret Rendezvous

“If animal history has been a history of evolution, then the history of mankind is one of retrogression. Hooray for monsters! Monsters are the great embodiments of the weak.”
― Abe Kōbō, Secret Rendezvous

“When will you ever accept the true ugliness of health?”
― Abe Kōbō, Secret Rendezvous