In Praise of Shadows
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.”
“If light is scarce then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty.”
“The quality that we call beauty ... must always grow from the realities of life.”
“There are those who say that when civilization progresses a bit further transportation facilities will move into the skies and under the ground, and that our streets will again be quiet, but I know perfectly well that when that day comes some new device for torturing the old will be invented.”
“In the mansion called literature I would have the eaves deep and the walls dark, I would push back into the shadows the things that come forward too clearly, I would strip away the useless decoration. I do not ask that this be done everywhere, but perhaps we may be allowed at least one mansion where we can turn off the electric lights and see what it is like without them.”
“For a woman who lived in the dark it was enough if she had a faint, white face —a full body was unnecessary.”
“The quality that we call beauty, however, must always grow from the realities of life, and our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows towards beauty’s ends.”
“Our cooking depends upon shadows and is inseparable from darkness”
“In making for ourselves a place to live, we first spread a parasol to throw a shadow on the earth, and in the pale light of the shadow we put together a house.”
“There are those who hold that to quibble over matters of taste in the basic necessities of life is an extravagance”
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Book Keywords:
japan, literature, darkness, 1stworldproblems