More Quotes by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Light matters should be dealt with seriously. Serious matters should be dealt with lightly.
To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not.
If you are slain in battle, you should be resolved to have your corpse facing the enemy.
I have found that the Way of the samurai is death. This means that when you are compelled to choose between life and death, you must quickly choose death.
Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth. Things appear far beyond one's power, because one cannot set his heart on any arduous project due to want of strong will.
There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything.
There is nothing we should be quite so grateful for as the last line of the poem that goes, 'When your own heart asks.
The deepest love is often hidden.
In China there was once a man who liked pictures of dragons, and his clothing and furnishings were all designed accordingly. His deep affection for dragons was brought to the attention of the dragon god, and onde day a real dragon appeared before his window. It is said that he died of fright. He was probably a man who always spoke big words but acted differently when facing the real thing.
Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else.
