Purity is something that cannot be attained except by piling effort upon effort.

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

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

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.

To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not.

Looking comparatively at the good things, you will see that they are not excluded from wisdom, humanity and bravery.

All of man’s work is a bloody business. That fact, today, is considered foolish, affairs are finished cleverly with words alone, and jobs that require effort are avoided. I would like young men to have some understanding of this.