It is useless to talk with those who do not understand one and troublesome to talk with those who criticize from a feeling of superiority. Especially one-sided persons are troublesome. Few are accomplished in many arts and most cling narrowly to their own opinion.
Murasaki ShikibuCeaseless as the interminable voices of the bell-cricket, all night till dawn my tears flow.
Murasaki ShikibuWho has told you that the fruit belies the flower? For the fruit you have not tasted, and the flower you know but by report.
Murasaki ShikibuPeople who do not get into scrapes are a great deal less interesting than those who do.
Murasaki ShikibuThe wood-carver can fashion whatever he will. Yet his products are but toys of the moment, to be glanced at in jest, not fashioned according to any precept or law. When times change, the carver too will change his style and make new trifles to hit the fancy of the passing day. But there is another kind of artist, who sets more soberly about his work, striving to give real beauty to the things which men actually use and to give to them the shape which tradition has ordained. This maker of real things must not for a moment be confused with the maker of idle toys.
Murasaki Shikibu