# Natsume Sōseki's most famous lines

Lines from I Am a Cat, Kusamakura, Kokoro and others, plus haiku and letters, all with a verified source. «The moon is beautiful, isn't it» as a translation of «I love you» is left out: there's no record he said it.

- 7 votes · 14 items
- Jan 15, 2020 · 青木 修
- https://even.best/en/l/1512/natsume-soseki-s-most-famous-lines

## Top 12

1. **I am a cat. As yet I have no name.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — The opening of I Am a Cat (1905).
2. **Use your head and you grate on others; follow your heart and you are swept away; insist on your will and you feel cramped. This world is hard to live in.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — The opening of Kusamakura (The Three-Cornered World, 1906).
3. **Because of a recklessness inherited from my parents, I've been losing out since I was a child.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — The opening of Botchan (1906).
4. **Anyone who has no spiritual ambition is a fool.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Kokoro (1914): said by K, and later thrown back at him by Sensei.
5. **As long as you can still cry, you can surely still laugh.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — The Miner (1908).
6. **What heals every wound is time.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — The Gate (1910).
7. **It is absolutely necessary to become an ox.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — From a letter to Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Kume Masao (1916): advice to keep going patiently like an ox.
8. **Pity's akin to love.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Sanshirō (1908): Yojirō's free translation of the English saying.
9. **I wish to be born a person as small as a violet.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — One of Sōseki's haiku.
10. **The winter wind blows the evening sun down into the sea.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — One of Sōseki's haiku.
11. **Struck, the wooden temple drum spits out a daytime mosquito.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — One of Sōseki's haiku, full of humour.
12. **I want to do literature with the fierce spirit of the Restoration patriots, as if it were a matter of life or death.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From a letter to Suzuki Miekichi.
13. **The peak of the clouds soars, blocking the thunder** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Soseki's haiku.
14. **It will gradually become easier. I have no idea whether it's painful or difficult.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Near the end of \`\`I am a Cat,'' the cat that fell into the water jar says the words.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.