27 Yoshida Kenko Quotes

Yoshida Kenko quotes

1. To while away the idle hours, seated the livelong day before the inkslab, by jotting down without order or purpose whatever trifling thoughts pass through my mind, truely this is a queer and crazy thing to do!

2. 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.

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

4. 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.

5. Leave undone whatever you hesitate to do.

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

7. Ambition never comes to an end.

8. A man who would be a success the world must first of all be a judge of moods, for untimely speeches will offend the ears and hurt the feelings of others, and so fail in their purpose. He has to beware of such occasions. But falling sick and bearing children and dying - these things take no account of moods. They do not cease because they are untimely. The shifting changes of birth, life, sickness, and death, the real great matters - these are like the surging flow of a fierce torrent, which delays not for an instant but straightway pursues its course. And so, for both priest and layman, there must be no talk of moods in things they must needs accomplish. They must be free from this care and that, they must not let their feet linger.

9. 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.

1. 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.

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

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

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

5. 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.

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

7. 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.

8. If we lived forever, if the dews of Adashino never vanished, if the crematory smoke on Toribeyama never faded, men would hardly feel the pity of things. The beauty of life is in its impermanence. Man lives the longest of all living things... and even one year lived peacefully seems very long. Yet for such as love the world, a thousand years would fade like the dream of one night.

9. Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless? To long for the moon while looking on the rain, to lower the blinds and be unaware of the passing of the spring - these are even more deeply moving. Branches about to blossom or gardens strewn with flowers are worthier of our admiration.

10. Life's most precious gift is uncertainty.

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

12. 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.

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

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

15. “Jos kaiken aikaa täytyy varoa olemasta eri mieltä keskustelukumppaninsa kanssa, tuntuu kuin loppujen lopuksi olisi aivan yksin. But such a man there cannot be; and if I found myself seated opposite to one, whom (I did not know well enough) to offer the slightest contradiction to, should I not feel as if I were alone?”

16. “It is a fine thing when a man who thoroughly understands a subject is unwilling to open his mouth.”

17. “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.”

18. “Naisen luonteen ja tavat saa kyllä selville häntä näkemättäkin, jos sattuu kuulemaan hänen puhuvan. But her station in life and disposition may be judged from the nature of her carelessly spoken words, though she be hidden behind a screen.”