Yoshida Quotes

#1. And besides, thought Yoshida, If it was all right for God to test man, why was it wrong for man to test God?

Haruki Murakami

#2. On the 26th of December of last year, I took office for my second term as prime minister. And it is the first time ever since then-Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, during the occupation period, that a prime minister is taking this position for the second time with a number of years in between.

Shinzo Abe

#3. By this Yoshida explains that 'when we look at the actual conditions of this world through the camera's lens, we must deny the random movements of the human eye and restrain the eye's constant movements in order to focus on one point.

Isolde Standish

#4. I know faith. Therefore, I must embrace the crown of thorns. I seek the truth. Therefore, I must dare to disobey God.

Sunao Yoshida

#5. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

#6. The longer you live, the greater your share of shame.

Yoshida Kenko

#7. History offers examples of winning in diplomacy after losing in war.

Shigeru Yoshida

#8. Japan has opened a new chapter in its history.

Shigeru Yoshida

#9. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

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

Yoshida Kenko

#11. 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 refuse a little wine when it is pressed upon him.

Yoshida Kenko

#12. The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under the lamp, a book spread out before you, and to make friends with people of a distant past you have never known.

Yoshida Kenko

#13. I have relinquished all that ties me to the world, but the one thing that still haunts me is the beauty of the sky

Yoshida Kenko

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

Yoshida Kenko

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

Yoshida Kenko

#16. Almost a century has passed since Japan first entered the world community by concluding a treaty of amity with the United States of America in 1854.

Shigeru Yoshida

#17. The true criminal must be defined as a man who commits a crime though he is as decently fed and clothed as others.

Yoshida Kenko

#18. There is fear as to whether Japan, reduced to such a predicament, could ever manage to pay reparations to certain designated Allied Powers without shifting the burden upon the other Allied Powers.

Shigeru Yoshida

#19. Out there was a man who had murdered his daughter. And another who had stepped on her heart. His hatred should be aimed at the one who killed her, but all he could picture was Yoshino being literally kicked out of that car.

Shuichi Yoshida

#20. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

#21. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

#22. To consider oneself different from ordinary men is wrong, but it is right to hope that one will not remain like ordinary men.

Yoshida Shoin

#23. What is important in a leader is a resolute will and determination. A man may be versatile and learned, but if he lacks resoluteness and determination, of what use will he be?

Yoshida Shoin

#24. If you imagine that once you have accomplished your ambitions you will have time to turn to the Way, you will discover that your ambitions never come to an end.

Yoshida Kenko

#25. We have listened here to the delegates who have recalled the terrible human suffering, and the great material destruction of the late war in the Pacific. It is with feelings of sorrow that we recall the part played in that catastrophic human experience by the old Japan.

Shigeru Yoshida

#26. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

#27. When people count on someone, the person they're counting on doesn't realise it. I mean - they might notice it, but they don't understand how seriously, how desperately, the other person's depending on them.

Shuichi Yoshida

#28. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

#29. I speak of the old Japan, because out of the ashes of the old Japan there has risen a new Japan.

Shigeru Yoshida

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

Yoshida Kenko

#31. Looking back on months and years of intimacy, to feel that your friend, while you still remember the moving words you exchanged, is yet growing distant and living in a world apart - all this is sadder far than partings brought by death.

Yoshida Kenko

#32. Knowledge leads to deception; talent and ability only serve to increase earthly desires.

Yoshida Kenko

#33. The second is that the role of China trade in Japanese economy, important as it is, has often been exaggerated, as proven by our experience of the past 6 years.

Shigeru Yoshida

#34. By perfecting this legislative machinery and by participating in the various international agreements we intend to contribute to the wholesome development of world trade.

Shigeru Yoshida

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

Yoshida Kenko

#36. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

#37. If the body dies, it does no harm to the mind, but if the mind dies, one can no longer act as a man even though the body survives.

Yoshida Shoin

#38. If you rely neither on yourself nor on others, you will rejoice when things go well, and not be aggrieved when they don't.

Yoshida Kenko

#39. We pray that henceforth not only Japan but all mankind may know the blessings of harmony and progress.

Shigeru Yoshida

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

Kenko Yoshida

#41. Kazuko was worried about him, calling him a hikikomori, a self-imposed shut-in.

Shuichi Yoshida

#42. It harms a man more to wound his heart than to hurt his body.

Yoshida Kenko

#43. We are determined that our nation shall cease to be a burden on other countries but shall contribute positively to world prosperity, while observing fully the fair trade practices in international commerce.

Shigeru Yoshida

#44. It seems hopeless, hopeless. Those who eat meat [at public expense] are a mean, selfish lot, and so the country is doomed. Our only hope lies in the grass-roots folk who eat our traditional food.

Yoshida Shoin

#45. It's the ephemeral nature of things that makes them wonderful.

Yoshida Kenko

#46. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

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

Yoshida Kenko

#48. It is foolish to be in thrall to fame and fortune, engaged in painful striving all your life with never a moment of peace and tranquillity.

Yoshida Kenko

#49. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

#50. One who aspires to greatness should read and study, pursuing the True Way with such a firm resolve that he is perfectly straightforward and open, rises above the superficialities of conventional behavior, and refuses to be satisfied with the petty or commonplace.

Yoshida Shoin

#51. 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 not expect it of a sudden, and it comes upon them unawares. So, though the dry flats extend far out, soon the tide comes and floods the beach.

Yoshida Kenko

#52. If you break out of this world you'll find this world again, only one size larger ...

Shuichi Yoshida

#53. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

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

Yoshida Kenko

#55. We will not fail your expectations of us as a new nation dedicated to peace, democracy, and freedom.

Shigeru Yoshida

#56. Once a man's will is set, he need no longer rely on others or expect anything from the world. His vision encompasses Heaven and earth, past and present, and the tranquility of his heart is undisturbed.

Yoshida Shoin

#57. It is a fine thing when a man who thoroughly understands a subject is unwilling to open his mouth.

Yoshida Kenko

#58. Life's most precious gift is uncertainty.

Yoshida Kenko

#59. As things stand now the feudal lords are content to look on while the shogunate carries on in a highhanded manner. Neither the lords nor the shogun can be depended upon, and so our only hope lies in grass-roots heroes.

Yoshida Shoin

#60. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

#61. 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.

Yoshida Kenko

#62. Leave undone whatever you hesitate to do.

Kenko Yoshida

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

Yoshida Kenko