Quotes from Okakura Kakuzo

But, after all, we see only our own image in the universe-- our particular idiosyncrasies dictate the mode of our perceptions.

We should be foolish indeed if we valued their achievement simply on the score of age. Yet we allow our historical sympathy to override our aesthetic discrimination.

The art of today is that which really belongs to us: it is our own reflection. In condemning it we but condemn ourselves.

He entered the realm of art when he perceived the subtle use of the useless.

It is not difficult to gather his meaning. He wished to create the attitude of a newly-awakened soul still lingering amid shadowy dreams of the past, yet bathing in the sweet unconsciousness of a mellow spiritual light, and yearning for the freedom that lay in the expanse beyond.

It is not that we should disregard the creations of the past, but that we should try to assimilate them into our consciousness. Slavish conformity to traditions and formulas fetters the expression of individuality in architecture.

Perfection is everywhere if we only choose to recognise it. Rikiu loved to quote an old poem which says: 'To those who long only for flowers, fain would I show the full-blown spring which abides in the toiling buds of snow-covered hills.

This tumultuous sea of foolish troubles which we call life are constantly in a state of misery while vainly trying to appear happy and contented. We stagger in the attempt to keep our moral equilibrium, and see forerunners of the tempest in every cloud that floats on the horizon. Yet there is joy and beauty in the roll of the billows as they sweep outward toward eternity. Why not enter into their spirit, or, like Liehtse, ride upon the hurricane itself?

In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.

Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others.

The Taoist and Zen conception of perfection... the dynamic nature of their philosophy laid more stress upon the process through which perfection was sought than upon perfection itself. True beauty could be discovered only by one who mentally completed the incomplete. The virility of life and art lay in its possibilities for growth.