Ambition never comes to an end.

Ambition never comes to an end.

Though a man excels in everything, unless he has been a lover his life is lonely, and he may be likened to a jewelled cup which can contain no wine.

If we lived forever, if the dews of Adashino never vanished, if the crematory smoke on Toribeyama never faded, men would hardly feel the pity of things. The beauty of life is in its impermanence. Man lives the longest of all living things... and even one year lived peacefully seems very long. Yet for such as love the world, a thousand years would fade like the dream of one night.

... For such as truly love the world, a thousand years would fade like the dream of one night.

The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty

Even members of the nobility, let alone persons of no consequence, would do well not to have children.