The hour of death waits for no order. Death does not even come from the front. It is ever pressing on from behind. All men know of death, but they do….

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 thin….

One should write not unskillfully in the running hand, be able to sing in a pleasing voice and keep good time to music; and, lastly, a man should not….

On a moonlit night, after a snowfall, or under cherry blossoms, it adds to our pleasure if, while chatting at our ease, we bring forth the wine cups..

In everything, no matter what it may be, uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that….

Ambition never comes to an end..

Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless? To long for the moon while looking on the rain, to lower t….

If life were eternal, all interest and anticipation would vanish. It is uncertainty which lends it fascination..

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

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alo….

Blossoms are scattered by the wind and the wind cares nothing but the blossoms of the heart no wind can touch..

Life's most precious gift is uncertainty..

Leave undone whatever you hesitate to do..

There is nothing finer than to be alone with nothing to distract you..

To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyon….

You should never put the new antlers of a deer to your nose and smell them. They have little insects that crawl into the nose and devour the brain..

It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met..

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..

The truth is at the beginning of anything and its end are alike touching..

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

A certain recluse, I know not who, once said that no bonds attached him to this life, and the only thing he would regret leaving was the sky..