Natsume Sōseki's most famous lines
The top 3 according to 7 votes from people: I am a cat. As yet I have no name. · 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. · Because of a recklessness inherited from my parents, I've been losing out since I was a child.. (Updated Sep 2, 2026.)
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.
Automatically translated (original in 日本語). See the original
Top 12
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1
I am a cat. As yet I have no name.
The opening of I Am a Cat (1905).
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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.
The opening of Kusamakura (The Three-Cornered World, 1906).
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3
Because of a recklessness inherited from my parents, I've been losing out since I was a child.
The opening of Botchan (1906).
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4
Anyone who has no spiritual ambition is a fool.
Kokoro (1914): said by K, and later thrown back at him by Sensei.
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5
As long as you can still cry, you can surely still laugh.
The Miner (1908).
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6
What heals every wound is time.
The Gate (1910).
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7
It is absolutely necessary to become an ox.
From a letter to Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Kume Masao (1916): advice to keep going patiently like an ox.
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8
Pity's akin to love.
Sanshirō (1908): Yojirō's free translation of the English saying.
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9
I wish to be born a person as small as a violet.
One of Sōseki's haiku.
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10
The winter wind blows the evening sun down into the sea.
One of Sōseki's haiku.
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11
Struck, the wooden temple drum spits out a daytime mosquito.
One of Sōseki's haiku, full of humour.
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12
I want to do literature with the fierce spirit of the Restoration patriots, as if it were a matter of life or death.
From a letter to Suzuki Miekichi.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 12… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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13
The peak of the clouds soars, blocking the thunder
Soseki's haiku.
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14
It will gradually become easier. I have no idea whether it's painful or difficult.
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.
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Comments (6)
『猫』の最後の「次第に楽になってくる」も入れてほしい。
「吾輩は猫である。名前はまだ無い。」は日本人なら誰でも知ってる。
俳句の「雲の峰」も好き。
こころのKの言葉、重い。
「月が綺麗ですね」が入ってないのは、出典がないからなんだね。勉強になった。
草枕の書き出し、高校で暗記させられた。