We should desire neither the immortality nor the death of any human being, whoever he may be, with whom we have to do. [p.260]

We must leave on one side the beliefs which fill up voids and sweeten what is bitter. The belief in immortality. The belief in the utility of sin: etiam peccat…

The miser deprives himself of his treasure because of his desire for it. [p.260]

It is not in a person's nature to desire what he already has. Desire is a tendency, the start of a movement toward something, toward a point from which one is …

'To take life,' went on the old man in a voice which, though charged with strong emotion, seemed to be speaking to itself, 'was the chief mark of the insensate…

We tend to suffer from the illusion that we are capable of dying for a belief or theory. What Hagakure is insisting is that even in merciless death, a futile d…

We must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living.