What are clouds, but an excuse for the sky? What is life, but an escape from death?

You've commited murder just as much as Helene did. You killed a fly with a human head. She killed a human with a fly head.

.., by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.

To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline and training is all about.

Anger is something you should only vent in front of intimates, and friends and relations. Never be angry in front of strangers because you lose face.

Isn't it only laughter we can stay human?

How baffling it was that even the most cunning and clever people would frequently see only what they wanted to see, and would rarely look beyond the thinnest of facades. Or they would ignore reality, dismissing it as the facade. And then, when their whole world fell to pieces...they would tear their topknots or rend their clothes and bewail their karma, blaming gods or kami or luck or their lords or husbands or vassals-anything or anyone-but never themselves.