All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.

The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.

The history of humanity is also a history of excavating hidden facts.

-- Seichō Matsumoto

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.

-- Ernest Hemingway

A vague anxiety.

-- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

I do not cling to life sufficiently to fear death.

-- Alexandre Dumas

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

-- Kahlil Gibran

Lord, when human beings are so full of sorrow, why is the sea so blue?

-- Shūsaku Endō