A samurai will use a toothpick even though he has not eaten. Inside the skin of a dog, outside the hide of a tiger.

Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else.

Go ahead and gamble a lie. A person who will not tell you seven lies within a hundred yards is useless as a man.

One should be wary of talking on end about such subjects as learning, morality or folklore in front of elders or people of rank. It is disagreeable to listen to.

It is said that what is called "the spirit of an age" is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. For this reason, although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation.

There is nothing we should be quite so grateful for as the last line of the poem that goes, 'When your own heart asks.

By being impatient, matters are damaged and great works cannot be done