Quotes from Takashi Matsuoka

Knowledge may hinder. Ignorance may liberate. Knowing when to know and when not to know, this is as important as a fluent blade. SUZUME–NO–KUMO (1434)

El conocimiento puede ser un freno. La ignorancia puede liberar. Saber cuándo saber y cuándo no saber es tan importante como un acero bien templado. Suzume-no-kumo, 1434

Fate is fate," Stark said. "It's there. It doesn't change. We just don't see it until we walk into it. Or it walks into us.

Good and evil are indeed not two.

And when the moment came, even then Genji would be fortunate. He would die without fear, drenched in his own heart's blood, in the embrace of a beautiful woman, and she would weep for him. What samurai could hope for more?

The sages say happiness and sorrow are one. Is this because in finding the first, we also find the second?

I enter a time of much peril, and am more likely to fail and die than succeed and live." "Those who succeed and those who fail are both destined to die.

Never like anybody you can't trust, Cruz said. You might think you're a smart boy, you can like somebody and still keep your eyes open. But there's something about liking that dismays your attention, I don't know what it is. You allow yourself to like somebody you don't trust, and one night soon enough, you'll wake up to find an ax cleaved in the back of your skull, and you'll have your own foolish liking to thank for it.

Lack of fear is not the mark of courage. It is the mark of idiocy. Courage is knowing fear and overcoming it.

When we let ourselves see only what we expect to see," Genji said, "we view the contents of our own minds and miss what is truly before us.

What will happen will happen, whether you know of it or not. Believe me, it is not always better to know." "Knowing must be better," Shigeru said. "Then no one can take you by surprise." "Someone will always take you by surprise, because no matter how much you know, you can never know everything.

Crisis changes people," Genji said, filling Heiko's cup in turn. "If they are fortunate, crisis shows them what truly matters.

You saved my life. You must let me thank you with a gift." "I could just as well say you saved mine. Neither of us would have survived without the other." "Then you owe me a gift as well. I will give you Apple Valley. What will you give me?

When we let ourselves see only what we expect to see," Genji said, "we view the contents of our own minds and miss what is truly before us.

How fragile life was, she thought, how unpredictable. We flatter ourselves, thinking we are actors on a stage, geniuses who write our own plays, extemporize our words, and shift major plot lines and the most subtle of nuances at our every whim. Perhaps wooden Bunraku puppets feel the same way. They do not notice the puppeteers who guide their every move.

It is important to know when to delegate authority.

She looked down and saw Genji on his warhorse, and it was he who was out of place, not herself. The incongruity of a samurai in her orchard made her laugh. Her own laughter brought her back. Coming back, she began to weep. "My home was in Apple Valley," Emily said. "Another Apple Valley." After a time, Genji said, "This place was yours before you ever saw it.

The lack of fear is not the mark of courage. It is the mark of idiocy. Courage is knowing fear and overcoming it.

Words can damage. Silence can heal. Knowing when to speak and when not to speak is the wisdom of sages. Knowledge can hinder. Ignorance can liberate. Knowing when to know and when not to know is the wisdom of prophets. Unimpeded by words, silence, knowledge, or ignorance, a fluent blade cuts cleanly. This is the wisdom of warriors.

All true communication, even between two people speaking the same language, requires translation," Genji said. "In the end, our hearts must hear what cannot be spoken.

Some say there is no difference among the barbarians, that they are all the same offal-eating abominations. This is false. The Portuguese will trade guns for women. The Dutch demand gold. The English want treaties. From this, you should know that the Portuguese and the Dutch are easily understood, and the English are the most dangerous. Therefore, study the English carefully and ignore the others. SUZUME–NO–KUMO (1641)

Loyalty was the most fundamental of samurai virtues. Without loyalty there was nothing. To Kawakami, who had looked at loyalty from every possible angle - examining loyalty was, after all, his occupation - it had become increasingly clear that the days of personal allegiance were coming to an end. Loyalty, in the future, must be to a cause, a principle, an idea, not a man or a clan.

I was running away," Jimbo said. "From whom?" "From myself." "A difficult endeavor," Genji said. "Many have attempted it. None that I know of has succeeded. Did you?" "Yes, my lord," Jimbo said. "I did.

No sooner did Hide have this thought than he rejected it. He could no longer indulge in self-doubt. His lord had appointed him to this post. To doubt his ability to carry out his duties was to doubt his lord. Loyalty demanded that he believe in himself because the lord believed in him. When he experienced one of his many faults, he must not endeavor to correct himself, to become the man his lord saw within him. Such was his obligation. He stood. His posture straight and confident.