Shūsaku Endō citations

“Christ did not die for the good and beautiful. It is easy enough to die for the good and beautiful; the hard thing is to die for the miserable and corrupt.”

“Sin, he reflected, is not what it is usually thought to be; it is not to steal and tell lies. Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.”

“True religion should be able to respond to the dark melodies, the faulty and hideous sounds that echo from the heart of men.”

“No matter what the circumstances, no man can completely escape from vanity.”

“When you suffer, I suffer with you. To the end I am close to you.”

“but our Lord was not silent. Even if he had been silent, my life until this day would have spoken of Him.”