Datz Sambolawan > Datz's Quotes

“Even if it seems certain that you will lose, retaliate. Neither wisdom nor technique has a place in this. A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death. By doing this, you will awaken from your dreams.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. There will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything.”
― Tsunetomo Yamamoto, The Hagakure: A code to the way of samurai

“Be true to the thought of the moment and avoid distraction. Other than continuing to exert yourself, enter into nothing else, but go to the extent of living single thought by single thought.”
― Tsunetomo Yamamoto, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“There is nothing we should be quite so grateful for as the last line of the poem that goes, 'When your own heart asks.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“It is a wretched thing that the young men of today are so contriving and so proud of their material posessions. Men with contriving hearts are lacking in duty. Lacking in duty, they will have no self-respect.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“Singlemindedness is all-powerful.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo

“When one is writing a letter, he should think that the recipient will make it into a hanging scroll.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“Respect, Honesty, Courage, Rectitude, Loyalty, Honour, Benevolence”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“The best fighter is never angry.”
― Lao Tzu

“Did not Socrates, all the while he unflinchingly refused to concede one iota of loyalty to his daemon, obey with equal fidelity and equanimity the command of his earthly master, the State? His conscience he followed, alive; his country he served, dying. Alack the day when a state grows so powerful as to demand of its citizens the dictates of their consciences!”
― Inazo Nitobe, Bushido: The Soul of Japan

“the feeling of distress is the root of benevolence, therefore a benevolent man is ever mindful of those who are suffering and in distress.”
― Inazo Nitobe, Bushido, the Soul of Japan

“When men's fowls and dogs are lost, they know to seek for them again, but they lose their mind and do not know to seek for it.”
― Inazo Nitobe, Bushido, the Soul of Japan

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”
― Lao Tzu

“The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.”
― Adam Smith, The Money Game

“No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself. No man is free who cannot command himself.”
― Pythagoras

“Love

I have loved Thee with two loves -
a selfish love and a love that is worthy of Thee.
As for the love which is selfish,
Therein I occupy myself with Thee,
to the exclusion of all others.
But in the love which is worthy of Thee,
Thou dost raise the veil that I may see Thee.
Yet is the praise not mine in this or that,
But the praise is to Thee in both that and this.”
― Rabia al Basri