The rice bowl is to me the most valid reason in the world for doing anything. A piece of one's soul to the multitudes in return for rice and wine does not seem to me a sacrilege.

And there is not anything in the world stronger than tenderness.

I really can't hate more than 5 or 10 years. Wouldn't it be terrible to be always burdened with those primary emotions you had at one time?

One should never condemn what one cannot understand.

Strange are the ways of history, where no single thing abides, but all things flow into each other, fragment to fragment clinging.

People never think about words, they only feel them.

People bring to what they see and feel, the inner weather of their souls and complexion of their minds.