Quotes from Inaz? Nitobe

The tripod that supported the framework of Bushido was said to be Chi, Jin, Yu, respectively Wisdom, Benevolence, and Courage.

SELF-CONTROL, which was universally required of samurai. The discipline of fortitude on the one hand, inculcating endurance without a groan, and the teaching of politeness on the other, requiring us not to mar the pleasure or serenity of another by manifestations of our own sorrow or pain, combined to engender a stoical turn of mind, and eventually to confirm it into a national trait of apparent stoicism.

Now, individuality is the sign of superior races and of civilizations already developed. If we make use of an expression dear to Nietzsche, we might say that in Asia, to speak of humanity is to speak of its plains; in Japan as in Europe, one represents it above all by its mountains.

Virtue and absolute power may strike the Anglo-Saxon mind as terms which it is impossible to harmonize.

Now the etiquette of war required that on such occasions no blood should be spilt, unless the weaker party proved to be a man of rank or ability equal to that of the stronger.

again he begs his victim to flee for his life.

Courage was scarcely deemed worthy to be counted among virtues, unless it was exercised in the cause of righteousness.

Indeed, the sense of shame seems to me to be the earliest indication of the moral consciousness of our race.

Intellectual superiority was, of course, esteemed; but the word Chi, which was employed to denote intellectuality, meant wisdom in the first instance and placed knowledge only in a very subordinate place. The tripod that supported the framework of Bushido was said to be Chi, Jin, Yu, respectively Wisdom, Benevolence, and Courage. A samurai was essentially a man of action

It is true that thrift was enjoined by Bushido, but not for economical reasons so much as for the exercise of abstinence

Learning without thought," said Confucius, "is labor lost: thought without learning is perilous." When character and not intelligence, when the soul and not the head, is chosen by a teacher for the material to work upon and to develop, his vocation partakes of a sacred character. "It is the parent who has borne me: it is the teacher who makes me man.

I am inclined to think that in one sense we have to feel more than others—yes, doubly more—since the very attempt to restrain natural promptings entails suffering. Imagine boys—and girls too—brought up not to resort to the shedding of a tear or the uttering of a groan for the relief of their feelings, and there is a physiological problem whether such effort steels their nerves or makes them more sensitive.

Alack the day when a state grows so powerful as to demand of its citizens the dictates of their conscience!

Calmness of behavior, composure of mind, should not be disturbed by passion of any kind.

Hae tibi erunt artes - pacisque imponere morem, Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos" "These shall be your arts, to set forth the law of peace, to spare the conquered, and to subdue the proud.

It is truly jarring to Japanese ears to hear the most sacred words, the most secret heart experiences, thrown out in promiscuous audiences. "Dost thou feel the soil of thy soul stirred with tender thoughts? It is time for seeds to sprout. Disturb it not with speech; but let it work alone in quietness and secrecy," writes a young samurai in his diary.

In the days when decapitation was public, not only were small boys sent to witness the ghastly scene, but they were made to visit alone the place in the darkness of night and there to leave a mark of their visit on the trunkless head.

Indeed, the Japanese have recourse to risibility whenever the frailties of human nature are put to severest test. I think we possess a better reason than Democritus himself for our Abderian tendency; for laughter with us oftenest veils an effort to regain balance of temper, when disturbed by any untoward circumstance. It is a counterpoise of sorrow or rage.

A mother who tries to console her broken heart by fancying her departed child absent on his wonted chase after the dragon-fly, hums, How far to-day in chase, I wonder, Has gone my hunter of the dragon-fly!

Had not in hours of peace, It learned to lightly look on life.

We must recognize in each virtue its own positive excellence and follow its positive ideal, and the ideal of self-restraint is to keep our mind level

But one who speaks in a borrowed tongue should be thankful if he can just make himself intelligible.

It is the parent who has borne me: it is the teacher who makes me man.

The cultivation of tender feelings breeds considerate regard for the sufferings of others. Modesty and complaisance, actuated by respect for others' feelings, are at the root of politeness.