Akutagawa Ryunosuke 芥川龍之介
1923 · Taisho Japan
Life is like a box of matches. To treat it as a serious matter is ridiculous. Not to treat it as a serious matter is dangerous.
人生は一箱のマツチに似てゐる。重大に扱ふのは莫迦々々しい。重大に扱はなければ危険である。Words of a Dwarf (Shuju no kotoba), serialized in the magazine Bungei Shunju
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1808 · Frankfurt, Germany · Weimar · God, speaking to the devil Mephistopheles
Man errs as long as he strives.
Es irrt der Mensch so lang er strebt.
Faust, "Prologue in Heaven"
Yi Gyubo 李奎報
13th century · Goryeo Korea
A mountain monk coveted the moonlight and drew it up with the water into his jar. When he reaches the temple he will find out: tip the jar, and the moon is gone as well.
山僧貪月色 幷汲一甁中
到寺方應覺 甁傾月亦空Dongguk Yi Sangguk jip, "On the Moon in the Well, a Mountain Evening," second poem
Ishikawa Takuboku 石川啄木
c. 1911 · Meiji Japan
When I think about it, there seems to be something I truly want, and there isn't. I polish my pipe.
考へれば、
ほんとに欲しと思ふこと有るやうで無し。
煙管をみがく。Tanka collection Sad Toys (Kanashiki gangu)
Oscar Wilde
1892 · Ireland · Britain
In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
Lady Windermere's Fan, Act 3, spoken by Dumby
Mary Shelley
1818 · London, England
Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
Frankenstein
Henry David Thoreau
1854 · Massachusetts, USA
Things do not change; we change.
Walden, "Conclusion"
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us