"We tend to suffer from the illusion that we are capable of dying for a belief or theory. What Hagakure is insisting is that even in merciless death, a futile death that knows neither flower nor fruit has dignity as the death of a human being. If we value so highly the dignity of life, how can we not also value the dignity of death? No death may be called futile."

Source : Yukio Mishima (1977). “The Way of the Samurai: Yukio Mishima on Hagakure in Modern Life”, Basic Books (AZ)

Yukio Mishima

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