Beyond doubt it would speedily verify the proverb that a nation must ravage itself before foreigners can ravage it, a man must despise himself before others can despise him.

The instant that the blade tore open his flesh, the bright disk of the sun soared up and exploded behind his eyelids.

Again and again, the cicada’s untiring cry pierced the sultry summer air like a needle at work on thick cotton cloth.

Otaguro’s bosom heaved with an ineffable surge of joy. “Every man is fighting, ” he murmured. “Every man.

It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.

I should have known right then that I was dreaming. But oh how we hang on to dreams even when we are gifted the largest of clues.

London owes everything to its press: it owes as much to its press as it does to its being the seat of government and the law.

I must follow the inscrutable exhortations of my soul.

As a camel kneels before his master to have him remove his burden at the end of the day, so kneel each night and let the Master take your burden.

We are all like Scheherazade's husband, in that we want to know what happens next.

I don't mind being the brunt of a joke, so long as it's a good one.

What miracle of weird transforming Is this wild work of frost and light, This glimpse of glory infinite?

There is only one justification for universities, as distinguished from trade schools. They must be centers of criticism.

The need to impress others causes half the world's woes.