Quotes from Eiji Yoshikawa

Whether people were great or not, there was not much variety in their inner life experience. Any difference lay merely in how they dealt with common human weaknesses.

A wise man who cultivates wisdom may sometimes drown in it.

Kalau orang muda tidak dapat menggantungkan cita-cita besar dalam jiwanya, siapa lagi yang dapat?

Kita manusia ini semua melihat satu bulan saja, tetapi banyak jalan yang dapat kita tempuh untuk sampai ke puncak yang terdekat dengannya. Kadang-kadang kalau kita tersesat, kita memutuskan untuk mencoba jalan orang lain, tapi tujuan akhirnya menemukan penyempurnaan hidup.

He used to say that a true r?nin did not seek fame or profit, did not curry favor with the powerful, did not attempt to use political power for his own ends, did not exempt himself from moral judgments. Rather he was as broad-minded as floating clouds, as quick to act as the rain and quite content in the midst of poverty. He never set himself any targets and never harbored any grudges.

Danger was the grindstone on which the swordsman whetted his spirit. Enemies were teachers in disguise.

Here--you warriors--why this moaning and complaining? Have you no more sense than toads and vipers? Our time hasn't come. Have you no patience? Are we not the 'trodden weed' still? The time is not yet here for us to raise our heads. Must you still complain?

Those who love seek a philosophy and, because of this, are fond of solitude.

Take a good look at the times. It is inevitable that greedy men, who close their eyes and obstruct the tide of the times with their selfishness, will be burned up together with the fallen leaves.

Diri seseorang itu adalah dasar segalanya. Setiap tindakan adalah ungkapan diri seseorang. Orang yang tidak kenal dirinya tak dapat melakukan apa pun buat orang lain.

kalau agama itu ajaran sehat, kita tak akan membutuhkan nabi-nabi untuk menyampaikannya kepada kita. -Takuan

If you trust me enough to tell me a secret, I certainly promise to keep it. Please speak freely, on any subject.

Lord Karasumaru considered it a grave mistake on the part of the gods to have made a man like himself a nobleman. And, though a servant of the Emperor, he saw only two paths open to him: to live in constant misery or to spend his time carousing. The sensible choice was to rest his head on the knees of a beautiful woman, admire the pale light of the moon, view the cherry blossoms in season and die with a cup of sake in his hand.

Through his mad fancying he remembered Mokunosuke's words: "Whoever you are, you are a man after all. You are no cripple with those fine limbs." Whether he was the son of an emperor or the child of an intrigue, was he not a child of the heavens and the earth?

I seem to hear thousands of voices--the voices of the common folk in the marketplace--urging me to go forward and do what must be done. More is at stake now than my life. On me turns the future of the warriors. Let's not quibble longer, lest this rare opportunity slip through my fingers.

Instead of wanting to be like this or that, make yourself into a silent, immovable giant. That's what the mountain is. Don't waste your time trying to impress people. If you become the sort of man people can respect, they'll respect you, without your doing anything.

Is there anything that will not decay?

A fief, the elder Hosokawa had advised, was like a castle wall built of many rocks. A rock that could not be cut to fit in comfortably with the others would weaken the whole structure, even though the rock itself might be of admirable size and quality.

The young man rushed toward them. "Stand and fight!" he was shouting. "Is running away the Yoshioka version of the Art of War? I personally don't want to kill you, but my Drying Pole's still thirsty. The least you can do, cowards that you are, is leave your heads behind.

I'm still an amateur. But the world's full of people who don't seem to be as good as I am.

Everything in the world is good. But if you're not careful, even good things can turn against you.

A wanderer with no ideal, no sense of gratitude for his independence, is no more than a beggar! The difference between a beggar and the great wandering priest Saigy? lies inside the heart!

Love was like a toothache.

Unlike other men, he was able to find pleasure in any job that he was given, but this was not simply because he was born poor. Rather, he saw the work at hand as a preparation for the next task. He was convinced that this was the way he would one day realize his ambitions.