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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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