Yoshida Kenkō Quotes

“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.”

“I recall the months and years I spent as the intimate of someone whose affections have now faded like cherry blossoms scattering even before a wind blew.”

“All things of this phenomenal world are mere illusion. They are worth neither discussing nor desiring.”

“If you follow the ways of the world, your heart will be drawn to its sensual defilements and easily led astray; if you go among people, your words will be guided by others' responses rather than come from the heart.”

“It harms a man more to wound his heart than to hurt his body.”

“It is the ephemeral nature of things that makes them wonderful.”

“Only a boring man will always want things to match; real quality lies in irregularity – another excellent remark.”

“The longer you live, the greater your share of shame.”

“There is a deep contradiction in failing to enjoy life and yet fearing death when faced with it.”

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

“Those who feel the impulse to pursue the path of enlightenment should immediately take the step, and not defer it while they attend to all the other things on their mind.”

“Why should it be so difficult to carry something out right now when you think of it, to seize the instant?”

“If man were never to fade away but lingered on forever in the world, how things would lose their power to move us. The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty.”

“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 alone.”

“In everything, no matter what it may be, uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth. Someone once told me even when building the imperial palace, they always leave one place unfinished. In both Buddhist and Confucian writings of the philosophers of former times, there are also many missing chapters.”

“It is a great error to be superior to others. It is such pride as this that makes a man appear a fool, makes him abused by others, and invites disaster. A man who is truly versed in any art will of his own accord be clearly aware of his own deficiency; and therefore, his ambition being never satisfied, he ends by never being proud.”

“To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations – such is pleasure beyond compare.”

“What a strange demented feeling it gives me when I realize that I have spent whole days before this inkstone, with nothing better to do, jotting down at random whatever nonsensical thoughts have entered my head.”