Otogizōshi Quotes

“Human beings are like that, though. They’ll do the most unbelievably cruel things when you least expect it.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Isn’t it said that memories only grow more beautiful with time?”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“The only thing people like you can see is other people’s faults, and you’re oblivious to the horror in your own hearts. You people terrify me.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“The only reason you helped me out was because I’m a tortoise and my tormentors were children. To intervene between a tortoise and children isn’t likely to bring about much in the way of repercussions. What did you give them—five coppers? That’s big money to a child, but it’s not much skin off your back, is it? I thought you’d put up a bit more than that. Miserly isn’t the word. How do you think it makes me feel? Five coppers for my life. For you it was just a whim of the moment. ‘A few coppers to rescue a tortoise—oh, hell, why not?’ But suppose it wasn’t children teasing a tortoise but, say, a group of rowdy fishermen tormenting some sickly beggar. Would you have offered so much as a single copper? Hardly. You would have scowled and hurried past, not wanting to get involved.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Inside every woman is a merciless bunny, and inside every man a virtuous tanuki who’s forever floundering as he tries to keep his head above water.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Or maybe it’s not about right and wrong at all but simply a humorous story suggesting that in our daily lives the people of this world abuse one another, punish one another, praise one another, and serve one another all on the basis of feelings—their likes and dislikes.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“But there is no limit to a proud and beautiful maiden’s capacity for cruelty.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“If you don’t give a damn what the rest of the world is up to, you can be alone for a hundred years—a thousand years—with no difficulty whatsoever.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Is this what all you refined gentlemen are like—wishing and pining and never acting?”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Each individual has his own way of living. Can we not learn to respect one another’s chosen way? One makes every effort to live in a dignified and proper manner, without harming anyone else, yet people will carp and cavil and try to tear one down.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Most of our children’s stories end with the perpetrators of evil deeds getting what’s coming to them, but this old gentleman did nothing wrong. He tried to perform a dance that, owing to a case of nerves, turned out rather disturbingly weird, but that’s the extent of his crime. Nor was anyone in his family particularly evil. And the same can be said for the sake-loving Ojii-san and his family, and for the Oni of Mount Tsurugi as well. None of them did anything wrong. And yet, although not a single instance of wrongdoing occurs in the story, people end up unhappy. It’s difficult, therefore, to extract from this tale of the stolen wen a moral lesson for daily life. But were an indignant reader to demand to know why, in that case, I even bothered to write the damn thing, I would have no choice but to reply as follows: It’s a tragicomedy of character. At issue here is an undercurrent that winds through the very heart of human existence.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“It’s because people have aspirations and ambitions that solitude wears on them. If you don’t have a damn about what the rest of the world is up to, you can be alone for a hundred years- a thousand years- with no difficulty whatsoever. At least, you can if you don’t let criticism bother you.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“I’m afraid I don’t really have a clear understanding of the psychology of the powerful- particularly the absolutely invincible variety, which I’ve never met or known to exist. I’m a story writer with such feeble imaginative powers that unless I myself have experienced something, I can’t write one line- I can’t write a word- about it.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Most drinkers are lonely men, isolated in their own homes. To ask whether they drink because they’re isolated or isolated because the rest of the family disapprove of their drinking would be like clapping and trying to decide which hand made the sound—it can only lead to a lot of vain quibbling.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“The Venerable’—isn’t that what you call yourself? Trying to find comfort in dreams of a past that will never come again, rather than hope for the future.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Valuing physical sensations above moral considerations is evidence of either mental deficiency or demonic evil.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“That “purity of youth” often turns out, as in the case of this rabbit, to be a frenzied dance—an indecipherable, sensual mishmash that casually combines murderous hatred with self-intoxication.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“What the tanuki doesn’t realize is that people who affect to believe all our nonsense often harbor evil and insidious plots in their hearts”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“When we reluctantly set out for someone’s house, thinking all the while that we don’t want to go, that we’re sure to end up bored to distraction, it’s often the case that the people we’re going to visit are genuinely delighted to have us. But suppose we’re thinking: Ah, that house is my home away from home. In fact, it’s more like home than my own place. It’s my only shelter from the storm! What then? We set out for the visit in high spirits, but in this case, my friends, we’re very likely to be considered a nuisance, an excrescence, and a hound from hell and to find our hosts repeatedly checking their watches. Thinking of someone else’s house as our shelter from the storm is, perhaps, evidence of a certain imbecility, but the fact remains that we often labor under astonishing misconceptions when calling on others. Unless we have a particular mission in mind, it’s probably best to refrain from visiting even our most intimate friends at home.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“We have a pearl disposal problem down here, you see. After all, if you think about it, they’re just oyster poop.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Please. Fire can’t burn underwater.” “Think before you speak, young master. Water contains oxygen, doesn’t it? Where there’s oxygen, there’s no reason you can’t have fire.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Once you’ve given in to that whim, your destiny is decided. There’s no such thing as ‘seeing what happens’ in this life. To do something just to see what happens is exactly the same as just plain doing it.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“In terms of sealing your fate, there’s no difference between turning right on a whim and turning right because you’ve come to some momentous resolve. Either way, it can’t be undone.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Kindness, for people like you, is nothing more than a minor diversion. A little titillation. You rescued me because I’m a tortoise. You put up money because they were children. But a sickly beggar and rowdy fishermen? That would be another story altogether. To have the smelly wind of real life blowing in your face would be more than you could bear. That’s what we call being a snob,”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“The problem with you men of refinement is that you actually seem to take pride in your skepticism. Skepticism isn’t wisdom, young master. It’s something much baser, and meaner. Miserliness, you might call it. Proof that you’re obsessed with the fear of losing something. Well, relax. Nobody’s after your possessions. People like you don’t know how to accept the kindness of others at face value. All you can think about is what you’ll have to do in return. ‘Gentlemen of refinement,’ my eye. Stingy bastards, is more like it.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“What do you think the path of your predecessors was, but the path of adventure?”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“When an artist is pumped up with the intention of creating a masterpiece, however, the work generally comes out poorly,”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“That’s all right. I’ll eat it cold. No need to warm it up.” Ojii-san shrinks guiltily into himself as he sits down. He’s dying to tell his wife about all the marvelous things that happened last night, but in the stern and austere atmosphere of her presence he finds the words sticking in his throat. He eats with head bowed, feeling perfectly wretched”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Ojii-san’s wen has been his only confidant, and he’s conscious of a certain loneliness without it.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“Perhaps, then, most lovers of drink are not what we today would call egoists but rather guardians of the sort of generous spirit that inspires all of us to toast, at times, our neighbor’s happiness. We do this because we want to drink, yes, but if our neighbor gets drunk along with us, our pleasure is double.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu