Natsume Sōseki

Natsume Sōseki (February 9, 1867 – December 9, 1916) was the pen name of Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目金之助 ), who is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji Era. He is best known for his novels Kokoro and I Am a Cat. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales.

Quotes

• 智に働けば角が立つ。情に棹させば流される。意地を通せば窮屈だ。兎角に人の世は住みにくい。
  • Chi ni hatarakeba kado ga tatsu. Jō ni saosaseba nagasareru. Iji o tōseba kyūkutsu da. Tokaku ni hito no yo wa suminikui.
  • Translation: Use your intellect to guide you, and you will end up putting people off. Rely on your emotions, and you will forever be pushed around. Force your will on others, and you will live in constant tension. There is no getting around it—people are hard to live with.
  • 草枕 Kusamakura, 1906.

• He argued that when the truth is not known, we desire to know it, but once we do know it, there are not a few cases in which we repent our knowing and envy that earlier time when we lived blissfully ignorant.
  • To the Spring Equinox and Beyond (2005)‎ ISBN 978-0804833288