She entered a state where prayer and poetry became one and the everyday world seemed full of holiness and significance.

I believe the test of government is the contentment of the people.

..while I was happy enough to pray to any god, knowing that they were simply different faces created by men, of one indivisible truth.

Don't you know the man whose life you spare will always hate you?

But just as the river is always at the door, so is the world always outside. And it is in the world that we have to live.

...What does the blessing of heaven mean? We know the kirin is just an animal, not a mythical creature." It has become a symbol now.... That is the way human beings deal with the world.

I am not made for despair