Eiji Yoshikawa Quotes

...you're going to find people from all over the country, everyone hungry for money and position. You won't make a name for yourself just doing what the next man does. You'll have to distinguish yourself in some way.

It's interesting, isn't it? Being in the world.

To the courtiers flushed with wine, life was pleasure, and pleasure life.

The line between life and death is not thicker than an eyelid.

Monks transgress the Laws of the Buddha, stir up the common people, store wealth and weapons, and spread rumors; under the guise of religion, they are nothing more than self-serving agitators.

It is easy to crush an enemy outside oneself but impossible to defeat an enemy within.

Think what you like. There are people who die by remaining alive and others who gain life by dying.

Hold on to your life and make it honest and brave.

Enemies were teachers in disguise.

It's no good to want to win still more when you have already won.

Every act is an expression of one's self.

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

it is easy to surpass a predecessor, but difficult to avoid being surpassed by a successor.

Oh, you crows! Feast away! What a spread! Soup straight from the eye sockets! And thick red sake! But don't have too much Or you'll surely get drunk.

It does happen, of course, that the priesthood has been on bad terms with womankind for some three thousand years. You see, Buddhism teaches that women are evil. Fiends. Messengers of hell. I've spent years immersed in the scriptures, so it's no accident that you and I fight all the time.

The world is a stone wall ... and they have put the stones so close together that there is not a single crack through which one may enter.

See, see how the sun has moved onward while we talked. Nothing can stop it in its course. Prayers cannot halt the revolving of nature. It is the same with human life. Victory and defeat are one in the vast stream of life. Victory is the beginning of defeat, and who can rest safely in victory? Impermanence is the nature of all things of this world. Even you will find your ill fortunes too will change. It is easy to understand the impatience of the old, whose days are numbered, but why should you young ones fret when the future is yours?

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

If a man wanted to put the entire universe in his breast, he couldn't do it with his chest stuck out.

There's not much benefit in attacking an empty house.

Don't yield! Keep up your courage! The same sun looks down on all of us!

Great character is forged through hardships.

People tend to be put off by the idea of selling sex, but if you spend a winter's night with one of them and talk with her about her family and so on, you're likely to find she's just like any other woman.

Beyond the shadow of a doubt, food was more important than a woman's suffering.

Sincerity, even if it speaks with a stutter, will sound eloquent when inspired.

Fighting isn't all there is to the Art of War. The men who think that way, and are satisfied to have food to eat and a place to sleep, are mere vagabonds. A serious student is much more concerned with training his mind and disciplining his spirit than with developing martial skills.

When a woman dislikes the man who is courting her, she parries him cleverly, like a willow in the wind.

I wouldn't say Musashi is ordinary. But he is. That's what's extraordinary about him. He is not content to rely on whatever natural gifts he may have. Knowing he is ordinary, he is constantly trying to improve himself. No one appreciates the agonizing effort he's had to make. Now that his years of training have yielded such spectacular results, everybody's talking about his 'God-given talent.' That's how men who don't try very hard comfort themselves.

The summit is believed to be the object of the climb. But its true object--the joy of living--is not in the peak itself, but in the adversities encountered on the way up.

The greatest happiness of life was to stand at the difficult border between success and failure.

To Kiyomori each stall, each soul here seemed borne under by the crushing weight of the world; everyone here was a pitiful weed, trodden underfoot -- a conglomeration of human lives putting down roots in this slime, living and letting live in the struggle to survive; and he was stirred by the fearful and magnificent courage communicated by the scene.

Love was like a toothache.

The bitter winds in February were sometimes called the First East Winds, but the longing for spring somehow made them seem more piercing.

Not only must a warrior be strong with his bow, but he must have a heart full of pity for all living creatures.

I want to dedicate myself to training and discipline. I want to spend every moment of every day working to improve myself.

I want to lead an important life. I want to do it because I was born a human being.

The truth of the scholar, alone in his study, does not always accord with what the world at large considers to be true.