Shūsaku Endō > Quotes

“Every weakness contains within itself a strength.”
― Shusaku Endo

“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.”
― Shusaku Endo, Silence

“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.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“When you suffer, I suffer with you. To the end I am close to you.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

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

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

“Lord, why are you silent? Why are you always silent...?”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“Trample! Trample! It is to be trampled on by you that I am here. ”
― Shusaku Endo, Silence

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

“It is easy enough to die for the good and beautiful; the hard thing is to die for the miserable and corrupt.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“I, too, stood on the sacred image. For a moment this foot was on his face. It was on the face of the man who has been ever in my thoughts, on the face that was before me on the mountains, in my wanderings, in prison, on the best and most beautiful face that any man can ever know, on the face of him whom I have always longed to love. Even now that face is looking at me with eyes of pity from the plaque rubbed flat by many feet. « Trample ! » said those compassionate eyes. « Trample ! Your foot suffers in pain ; it must suffer like all the feet that have stepped on this plaque. But that pain alone is enough. I understand your pain and your suffering. It is for that reason that I am here. »
« Lord, I resented your silence. »
« I was not silent. I suffered beside you. »”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“But pity was not action. It was not love. Pity, like passion, was no more than a kind of instinct.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“The earth is not just for the clever and the strong.”
― Shūsaku Endō

“Man is a strange being. He always has a feeling somewhere in his heart that whatever the danger he will pull through. It's just like when on a rainy day you imagine the faint rays of the sun shining on a distant hill.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“At the core of her senseless actions, she vaguely perceived that she yearned for something. A something that would provide her with a sure sense of fulfillment. But she could not fathom what that something might be.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Deep River

“There are neither the strong nor the weak. Can anyone say that the weak do not suffer more than the strong?”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“A person never knows their own true face. Everybody thinks that the phoney, posed social mask they wear is their real face.”
― Shusaku Endo, Scandal

“Over the years I have forged intimate familial ties with these characters, who are reflections of a portion of myself. Consequently, even a character who appeared only once in a short story waits now in the wings, concealed by the curtain, for his next appearance on-stage. Not one of them has ever broken free of his familial ties with me and disappeared for ever - at least, not within the confines of my heart.”
― Shusaku Endo, The Final Martyrs

“I do not believe that God has given us this trial to not purpose. I know that the day will come when we will clearly understand why this persecution with all it's sufferings has been bestowed upon us -- for everything that Our Lord does is for our good. And yet, even as I write these words I feel the oppressive weight in my heart of those last stammering words of Kichijiro in the morning of his departure: "Why has Deus Sama imposed this suffering on us?" and then the resentment in those eyes that he turned upon me. "Father", he had said "what evil have we done?"

I suppose I should simply cast from my mind these meaningless words of the coward; yet why does his plaintive voice pierce my breast with tall the pain of a sharp needle? Why has Our Lord imposed this torture and this persecution on poor Japanese peasants? No, Kichijiro was trying to express something different, something even more sickening. The silence of God. Already twenty years have passed since the persecution broke out; the black soil of Japan has been filled with the lament of so many Christians; the red blood of priests has flowed profusely; the walls of churches have fallen down; and in the face of this terrible and merciless sacrifice offered up to Him, God has remained silent.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“The important thing in this life is to link your sadness to the sadness of others.”
― Shusaku Endo, The Girl I Left Behind

“We priests are in some ways a sad group of men. Born into the world to render service to mankind, there is no one more wretchedly alone than the priest who does not measure up to his task.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“I did pray. I kept on Praying. But prayer did nothing to alleviate their suffering.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“A man who wields a pen has to be accountable to society.”
― Shusaku Endo, Scandal

“The smell of death was thick in the city of Vārāṇasī. And in Tokyo as well. And yet the birds blissfully sang their songs.”
― Shusaku Endo, Deep River

“Behind the depressing silence of the sea, the silence of God …. the feeling that while men raise their voices in anguish God remains with folded arms, silent.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“We'll shake, we'll shake the tree of dreams,
That solitary tree of dreams
In the centre of the verdant field.”
― Shusaku Endo, Deep River

“The reason why darkness terrifying for us, he reflected, is that there remains in us the instinctive fear the primitive man had when there was as yet no light.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“No doubt his fellow priests would condemn his act as sacrilege; but even if he was betraying them, he was not betraying his Lord. He loved him now in a different way from before. Everything that had taken place until now had been necessary to bring him to this love. 'Even now I am the last priest in this land. But Our Lord was not silent. Even if he had been silent, my life until this day would have spoken of him.”
― Shūsaku Endō, Silence

“To be a saint or a man of too good a nature in today's pragmatic world, with everyone out to get the other fellow, was equivalent to being a fool, wasn't it?”
― Shūsaku Endō, Wonderful Fool

“I don't want to die in darkness any thicker than this. I want to bring some kind of resolution in my life.”
― Shusaku Endo, Scandal