Nothing can be well learned that is not agreeable to one’s natural taste.
—Murasaki Shikibu
No art or learning is to be pursued halfheartedly…and any art worth learning will certainly reward more or less generously the effort made to study it.
—Murasaki Shikibu
Foolish indeed are those who trust to fortune.
—Murasaki Shikibu
Topics: Luck
There is much to be said for cherry blossoms, but they seem so flighty. They are so quick to run off and leave you. And then just when your regrets are the strongest the wisteria comes into bloom, and it blooms on into the summer. There is nothing quite like it. Even the color is somehow companionable and inviting.
—Murasaki Shikibu
How much the more in judging of the human heart should we distrust all fashionable airs and graces, all tricks and smartness, learnt only to please the outward gaze
—Murasaki Shikibu
One ought not to be unkind to a woman merely on account of her plainness, any more than one had a right to take liberties with her merely because she was handsome
—Murasaki Shikibu
in the mountains the cherry trees were in full bloom, and the farther he went, the lovelier the veils of mist became, until for him, whose rank so restricted travel that all this was new, the landscape became a source of wonder.
—Murasaki Shikibu
The memories of long love gather like drifting snow, poignant as the mandarin ducks who float side by side in sleep.
—Murasaki Shikibu
It is so rare to find someone of true understanding; for the most part they judge purely by their own standards and ignore everyone else. So all they see of me is a facade. There are times when I am forced to sit with them and on such occasions I simply ignore their petty criticisms, not because I am particularly shy but because I consider it pointless. As a result, they now look down upon me as a dullard.
—Murasaki Shikibu
People who have become so precious that they go out of their way to try and be sensitive in the most unpromising situations, trying to capture every moment of interest, are bound to look ridiculous and superficial.
—Murasaki Shikibu
Anything whatsoever may become the subject of a novel, provided only that it happens in this mundane life and not in some fairyland beyond our human ken.
—Murasaki Shikibu
There is a time for everything; and all people, but more especially women, should be constantly careful to watch circumstances, and not to air their accomplishments at a time when nobody cares for them. They should practise a sparing economy in displaying their learning and eloquence, and should even, if circumstances require, plead ignorance on subjects with which they are familiar.
—Murasaki Shikibu
It is useless to talk with those who do not understand one and troublesome to talk with those who criticize from a feeling of superiority. Especially one-sided persons are troublesome. Few are accomplished in many arts and most cling narrowly to their own opinion.
—Murasaki Shikibu
Those who linger on and those all too swiftly gone live as dewdrops, all, and it is a foolish thing to set one’s heart on their world.
—Murasaki Shikibu
Beauty without colour seems somehow to belong to another world.
—Murasaki Shikibu
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Lloyd Alexander American Writer
- Isabel Allende Chilean Novelist
- Anthony Powell English Novelist
- C. S. Lewis Irish-born Author, Scholar
- Nikolai Gogol Russian Novelist, Dramatist
- Haruki Murakami Japanese Novelist
- Tanizaki Jun’ichiro Japanese Novelist
- Yasunari Kawabata Japanese Novelist, Short Story Writer
- Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) Danish Novelist, Short-story Writer
- James Boswell Scottish Biographer, Diarist
Leave a Reply