Not long ago I learned from a certain person in considerable detail about the worthlessness of your character. All the same, it is you who have given me strength, you who have put the rainbow of revolution in my breast. It is you who have given an object to my life.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the interplay between the judgment of character and the influence of a significant person in one’s life.
In this quote, Osamu Dazai expresses how, despite being informed about the perceived shortcomings of one's character by others, it is the presence and impact of a particular person that infuses meaning and strength into his life. This highlights the paradox of external opinions versus the internal value that relationships can bring, suggesting that genuine connections can provide purpose and inspire personal growth.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of supportive relationships in personal development.
I soon came to understand that drink, tobacco and prostitutes were all great means if dissipating (even for a few moments) my dread for human beings. I came even to feel that if I had to sell every last possession to obtain these means of escape, it would be well worth it.
I want to spend my time with people who don't look to be respected. But such good people won't want to spend their time with me.
In my case such an expression as 'to be fallen for' or even 'to be loved' is not in the least appropriate; perhaps it describes the situation more accurately to say that I was 'looked after.
Unhappiness. There are all kinds of unhappy people in the world. I suppose it would be no exaggeration to say that the world is composed entirely of unhappy people. But those people can fight their unhappiness with society fairly and squarly, and society for its part easily understands and sympathizes with such struggles. My unhappiness stemmed entirely from my own vices, and I had no way of fighting anybody.
As long as I can make them laugh, it doesn’t matter how, I’ll be alright. If I succeed in that, the human beings probably won’t mind it too much if I remain outside their lives. The one thing I must avoid is becoming offensive in their eyes: I shall be nothing, the wind, the sky.
To wait. In our lives we know joy, anger, sorrow, and a hundred other emotions, but these emotions all together occupy a bare one percent of our time. The remaining ninety-nine percent is just living in waiting. I wait in momentary expectation, feeling as though my breasts are being crushed, for the sound in the corridor of the footsteps of happiness. Empty. Oh, life is too painful, the reality that confirms the universal belief that it is best not to be born.
Human freedom involves our capacity to pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.
War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men.
Worthless is the nation that does not gladly stake its all on its honor.
Time present and time past / are both perhaps present in time future.
Ugly is attractive, ugly is exciting. Maybe because it is newer. The investigation of ugliness is, to me, more interesting than the bourgeois idea of beauty. And why? Because ugly is human.
Intersectionality is an analytic sensibility, a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power. Originally articulated on behalf of black women, the term brought to light the invisibility of many constituents within groups that claim them as members but often fail to represent them.
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