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Sei Shonagon Quotes

Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese author, poet, and a court lady who served the Empress Teishi around the year 1000 during the middle Heian period. She is the author of The Pillow Book . Wikipedia  

✵ 966 – 1025
Sei Shonagon photo

Works

The Pillow Book
The Pillow Book
Sei Shonagon
Sei Shonagon: 6   quotes 1   like

Famous Sei Shonagon Quotes

“In life there are two things which are dependable. The pleasures of the flesh and the pleasures of literature.”

Sei Shonagon book The Pillow Book

Source: The Pillow Book

“Pleasing things: finding a large number of tales that one has not read before. Or acquiring the second volume of a tale whose first volume one has enjoyed. But often it is a disappointment.”

Sei Shonagon book The Pillow Book

Source: The Pillow Book

“A man who has nothing in particular to recommend him discusses all sorts of subjects at random as though he knew everything.”

Sei Shonagon book The Pillow Book

Source: The Pillow Book
Source: The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon (1002), p. 44

“Things That Lose by Being Painted
Pinks, cherry blossoms, yellow roses. Men or women who are praised in romances as being beautiful.Things That Gain by Being Painted
Pines. Autumn fields. Mountain villages and paths. Cranes and deer. A very cold winter scene; an unspeakably hot summer scene.”

Sei Shonagon

Source: The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon (1002), p. 138

“One is telling a story about old times when someone breaks in with a little detail that he happens to know, implying that one's own version is inaccurate — disgusting behavior!”

Sei Shonagon

Source: The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon (1002), p. 46

“Splendid Things
Chinese brocade. A sword with a decorated scabbard. The grain of the wood in a Buddhist statue. Long flowering branches of beautifully coloured wistaria entwined about a pine tree.”

Sei Shonagon

Source: The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon (1002), p. 109

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