Eiji Yoshikawa Quotes

19 Sourced Quotes

When a woman dislikes the man who is courting her, she parries him cleverly, like a willow in the wind.

Eiji Yoshikawa
If a man wanted to put the entire universe in his breast, he couldn't do it with his chest stuck out.

Eiji Yoshikawa
It is easy to crush an enemy outside oneself but impossible to defeat an enemy within.

Eiji Yoshikawa
The truth of the scholar, alone in his study, does not always accord with what the world at large considers to be true.

Eiji Yoshikawa
The line between life and death is not thicker than an eyelid.

Eiji Yoshikawa
I want to dedicate myself to training and discipline. I want to spend every moment of every day working to improve myself.

Eiji Yoshikawa
It does happen, of course, that the priesthood has been on bad terms with womankind for some three thousand years. You see, Buddhism teaches that women are evil. Fiends. Messengers of hell. I've spent years immersed in the scriptures, so it's no accident that you and I fight all the time.

Eiji Yoshikawa
Oh, you crows! Feast away! What a spread! Soup straight from the eye sockets! And thick red sake! But don't have too much Or you'll surely get drunk.

Eiji Yoshikawa
Monks transgress the Laws of the Buddha, stir up the common people, store wealth and weapons, and spread rumors; under the guise of religion, they are nothing more than self-serving agitators.

Eiji Yoshikawa
People tend to be put off by the idea of selling sex, but if you spend a winter's night with one of them and talk with her about her family and so on, you're likely to find she's just like any other woman.

Eiji Yoshikawa
Think what you like. There are people who die by remaining alive and others who gain life by dying.

Eiji Yoshikawa
It is easy to surpass a predecessor, but difficult to avoid being surpassed by a successor.

Eiji Yoshikawa
You're going to find people from all over the country, everyone hungry for money and position. You won't make a name for yourself just doing what the next man does. You'll have to distinguish yourself in some way.

Eiji Yoshikawa
The world is always full of the sound of waves.
The little fishes, abandoning themselves to the waves, dance and sing and play, but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows its depth?

Eiji Yoshikawa
I want to lead an important life. I want to do it because I was born a human being.

Eiji Yoshikawa
Beyond the shadow of a doubt, food was more important than a woman's suffering.

Eiji Yoshikawa
Danger was the grindstone on which the swordsman whetted his spirit. Enemies were teachers in disguise.

Eiji Yoshikawa
Sincerity, even if it speaks with a stutter, will sound eloquent when inspired.

Eiji Yoshikawa
Fighting isn't all there is to the Art of War. The men who think that way, and are satisfied to have food to eat and a place to sleep, are mere vagabonds. A serious student is much more concerned with training his mind and disciplining his spirit than with developing martial skills.

Eiji Yoshikawa