“Every joy that some experience is paid for by the sorrow of others.”

— Kaneko Fumiko, The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman (1991), p. 16

About Kaneko Fumiko

1903 – 1926

Japanese anarchist and writer whose prison memoirs were published after her death.

“Let your children play as they please! To play freely on this earth is the one privilege nature has given to children.”

“By nature human beings should be equal.”

“The virtue and beauty of human beings is to live naturally, ungoverned by external forces.”

“Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.”

“Grief may be joy misunderstood; Only the Good discerns the good.”

“Happiness is lost by criticizing it; sorrow by accepting it.”

“Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow.”

“Isn't it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned?”

“The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills.”