Quotes from Kakuz? Okakura

In ethics the Taoist railed at the laws and the moral codes of society, for to them right and wrong were but relative terms.

We are wicked because we are frightfully self-conscious.

What dire consequences to humanity lie in the contemptuous ignoring of Eastern problems!

Vacuum is all potent because all containing.

Cel care nu e conÈ™tient de propria micime nu va putea niciodat? înÈ›elege grandoarea celuilalt.

O "chaísmo" é um culto que se fundamenta na veneração da beleza em meio à sordidez dos acontecimentos diários. Incute a pureza e a harmonia, o mistério da caridade mútua, o romantismo da ordem social. É essencialmente a veneração do imperfeito, uma tentativa singela de conquistar o possível em meio a esta coisa impossível que conhecemos como vida.

Perhaps we are passing through an age of democratisation in art, while awaiting the rise of some princely master who shall establish a new dynasty. Would that we loved the ancients more and copied them less! It has been said that the Greeks were great because they never drew from the antique. The

Al ofrecer a su amada la primera guirnalda, el hombre primitivo se eleva sobre la bestia; saltando sobre las necesidades burdas de la naturaleza, se hace humano; percibiendo la sutil utilidad de lo inútil, entra en el reino del arte.

It needed the genius of the Tang dynasty to emancipate Tea from its crude state and lead to its final idealization.

Said he (Sung Dynasty critic): "In my young days I praised the masters whose pictures I liked, but as my judgment matured I praised myself for liking what the masters had chosen to have me like.

Our standards of morality are begotten of the past needs of society, but is society to remain always the same? The observance of communal traditions involves a constant sacrifice of the individual to the state. Education, in order to keep up the mighty delusion, encourages a species of ignorance. People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly.

Much comment has been given lately to the Code of the Samurai, --the Art of Death which makes our soldiers exult in self- sacrifice; but scarcely any attention has been drawn to Teaism, which represents so much of our Art of Life.

It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.

Perhaps we are passing through an age of democratisation in art, while awaiting the rise of some princely master who shall establish a new dynasty. Would that we loved the ancients more and copied them less! It has been said that the Greeks were great because they never drew from the antique.

Tea ... is a religion of the art of life.

True beauty could be discovered only by one who mentally complete the incomplete.

Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things.

Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things.

Our mind is the canvas on which the artists lay their colour; their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro the light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as we are of the masterpiece.

But when we consider how small after all the cup of human enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity, we shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea-cup.

Perfection is everywhere if we only choose to recognise it.

People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly.

We are ever brutal to those who love and serve us in silence, but the time may come when, for our cruelty, we shall be deserted by these best friends of ours.

Approach a great painting as thou wouldst approach a great prince.