“Whenever I was asked what I wanted my first impulse was to answer "Nothing." The thought went through my mind that it didn't make any difference, that nothing was going to make me happy.”

—  Osamu Dazai, book No Longer Human

Third Notebook: Part One
Source: No Longer Human

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 5, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Whenever I was asked what I wanted my first impulse was to answer "Nothing." The thought went through my mind that it d…" by Osamu Dazai?
Osamu Dazai photo
Osamu Dazai39
Japanese author 1909–1948

Related quotes

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me want to dream.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Variant: I don't know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream.
Source: Van Gogh's Starry Night Notebook

Jerzy Kosiński photo

“There's a place beyond words where experience first occurs to which I always want to return. I suspect that whenever I articulate my thoughts or translate my impulses into words, I am betraying the real thoughts and impulses which remain hidden.”

Jerzy Kosiński book The Painted Bird

Source: The Painted Bird

“My thoughts were chasing each other all over the place, but nothing seemed to sort itself out. Advice, I thought. Ask his advice. On love? Finance? Career? Better stick to love, I decided, it’s what’s on your mind anyway.
And with that my mind went blank.”

Elaine Dundy (1921–2008) American journalist, actress

Part One, One
The Dud Avocado (1958)

Abbas Kiarostami photo

“From my very first movie, what was my concentration, my inspiration, was I didn't want to narrate something, I didn't want to tell a story. I wanted to show something, I wanted for them to make their own story from what they were seeing.”

Abbas Kiarostami (1940–2016) Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2009/01/a-conversation-with-kiarostami.html

“We are women, and my plea is Let me be a woman, holy through and through, asking for nothing but what God wants to give me, receiving with both hands and with all my heart whatever that is.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Orson Scott Card photo

“I'm passing through the world invisibly. Even when people see or speak to me it's as if I didn't exist, as if I had no right to exist. I tread across their lands and they don't see me. I act and act and act and nothing makes any difference in the world. But they touch me.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Treason (1988)

Chuck Palahniuk photo

“My first time I jacked off, I thought I'd invented it. I looked down at my sloppy handful of junk and thought, This is going to make me rich.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

Sathya Sai Baba photo

“Trust in my wisdom. I do not make mistakes. Love my uncertainty for it is not a mistake. It is my intent and will. Remember -- nothing happens without my will. Be still. Do not ask to understand. Do not want to understand.”

Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011) Indian guru

Sanathana Sarathi, August 1984

Henry David Thoreau photo

“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.”

Henry David Thoreau book Life Without Principle

Life Without Principle (1863)
Context: The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. I am surprised, as well as delighted, when this happens, it is such a rare use he would make of me, as if he were acquainted with the tool.

“What kind of scholar was I? Or was I a scholar at all? My ignorance was enormous. Beside it my knowledge was nothing. My hunger for learning, not so much to improve my lot as to understand my world, had led me to study and to thought. Reading without thinking is as nothing, for a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.”

Louis L'Amour book The Walking Drum

Source: The Walking Drum (1984), Ch. 25

Related topics