But happiness is being able to hope, however faintly, for happiness. So, at least, we must believe if we are to live in the world of today. - Osamu Dazai

Item. A hand in plaster. This was the right hand of Venus. A hand like a dahlia blossom, a pure white hand, mounted on a stand. But if you looked at it carefully you could tell how this pure white, delicate hand, with whorl-less finger tips and unmarked palms, expressed, so pitifully that even the beholder was stabbed with pain, the shame intense enough to make Venus stop her breath; in the gesture was implicit the moment when Venus' full nakedness was seen by a man, when she twisted away her body, flushed all over with the prickling warmth of her shock, the whirlwind of her shame, and the tragedy of her nudity. Unfortunately, this was only a piece of bric-à-brac. The clerk valued it at fifty sen.

In spite of my suffering, at the thought that I was sure to end up by killing myself, I cried aloud and burst into tears.

Heaven forbid if beauty were to have substance. Genuine beauty is always meaningless, without virtue.