Caspar Daw

“185. It Is Getting So Dark
I am the sort of person who approves of what others abhor and detests the things they like.”
― Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book

“When I felt ill and was on the way to becoming a burden to the other men, I noticed a growing chill in their attitude toward me. For people like us, living day and night on the brink of danger, the normal instinct of survival seems to strike inward, like a disease, distorting the personality and removing all motives other than those of sheer self-interest. That is why this afternoon I did not wait to go and tell my former comrades-in-arms what had happened to me. For one thing, they probably already knew; besides, it seemed unfair to risk awakening their dormant sense of humanity.”
― Shōhei Ōoka, Fires on the Plain

“Walking along, I occasionally had to stop by the side of the road to spit out the mucus that kept rising in my throat. It rather pleased me to think of the malignant tubercle bacilli that I had brought from Japan being scorched to death under the tropical sun.”
― Shōhei Ōoka, Fires on the Plain

“30. Insects
The fly should have been included in my list of hateful things; for such an odious creature does not belong with ordinary insects...”
― Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book