Quotes from Eiji Yoshikawa

O, sungguh gila aku, kalau aku mencoba menangkap kamu dengan kekuatan. Tubuhmu terlalu kuat. Manusia tak punya banyak kesempatan menang bergulat dengan macan. Tapi untunglah ia lebih pandai. Tidak banyak orang yang membantah kenyataan bahwa macan lebih rendah dari manusia.

Apakah permata itu? Yaitu cinta yang kuat d antara saudara. Rasa kasih sayang di antara kaum sedarah

Some of the weaker men have run away from the school, but the stronger and more courageous have all gone up to the spreading pine.

When the workers, whose only pleasure was sleeping, crawled into their beds, they slumbered like cattle.

Tingkah lakumu sampai sekarang ini tidak lebih dari keberanian binatang, jenis keberanian yang tidak menghargai nilai-nilai kemanusiaan dan kehidupan. Itu bukan jenis keberanian yang menciptakan soerang samurai.

Keberanian yang sejati kenal takut. Ia tahu bagaimana takut kepada apa yang harus ditakuti.

Oh, but you're wrong! It's my duty as a priest to pry into people's lives. I agree it's a meddlesome trade, but it's no more useless than the business of a merchant, clothier, carpenter or samurai. It exists because it is needed.

A great man is not made simply by innate ability. Circumstances must give him the opportunity. These circumstances are often the malevolent conditions that surround a man and work on his character, almost as if they were trying to torture him. When his enemies have taken every form possible, both seen and unseen, and ally themselves to confront him with every hardship imaginable, he encounters the real test of greatness.

He looked over the side of the boat, at the swirling blue water. It was deep here, infinitely deep, and alive with what seemed to be eternal life. But water had no fixed, determined form. Was it not because man had a fixed, determined form that he cannot possess eternal life? Does not true life begin only when tangible form has been lost? (Musashi---the Soul of the Deep)

People do not give up their loves and hates as long as life lasts. Waves of feeling come and go with the passage of time. The world is always full of the sound of waves. The little fishes, abandoning themselves to the waves, dance and sing and play, but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows its depth? (Musashi---the Soul of the Deep)

How to make his mother, whom he imagined to be the unhappiest person in the world, the happiest, was what drove him on.

There is no leisure in a life of indolence. That should be left to the birds and beasts. There is seclusion even in a crowd, Tranquillity in the streets of a town. The mountain clouds are free from worldly attachments, They come and go of themselves. How can the place to bury one's bones Be limited to the green mountains?

We human beings all look up at the same moon, but there are many roads we may travel to reach the top of the peak nearest it. Sometimes, when we lose our way, we decide to try someone else's, but the ultimate aim is to find fulfillment in life.

Who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who Knows its depth?

The little fishes, abandoning themselves to the waves, dance and sing, and play, but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows its depth?

Little fishes, abandoning themselves to the waves, dance and sing, and play, but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows its depth?

the human mouth is the gateway to catastrophe.

every province had its own character, and in each one there was both appearance and reality. Even a province that seemed weak on the surface could have hidden strengths. Conversely, provinces that looked strong—like Mino and Suruga—might be rotten from within.

There are people who die by remaining alive and others who gain life by dying.

He was not ashamed of his way of life, because he did not humble himself like an animal. He worked for the world, and believed that heaven would give him what he needed.

He tratado de hacer que fluyera el agua por donde creía que debería hacerlo y obligar a la tierra a permanecer donde me parecía que debería estar. Pero no ha servido de nada, y no es de extrañar. El agua es agua, la tierra es tierra. Yo no puedo cambiar su naturaleza. Lo que debo hacer es ponerme al servicio del agua y ser un protector de la tierra.

Aku berpegang pada satu hal ini: tubuhku boleh menjadi debu, tapi aku akan tetap hidup.

To think that a man Has but fifty years to live under heaven. Surely this world Is nothing but a vain dream. Living but one life, Is there anything that does not decay?

She was only a year or two older than Musashi, but how different they were in their experience of love. Watching him sit so stiffly, restraining his emotions, avoiding her face as though a look at her might blind him, she felt once again like a sheltered maiden experiencing the first pangs of love.