Yoshida Kenkō > Quotes

“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, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“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 Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“In everything, no matter what it may be, uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth. Someone once told me, "Even when building the imperial palace, they always leave one place unfinished." In both Buddhist and Confucian writings of the philosophers of former times, there are also many missing chapters.”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“There is nothing finer than to be alone with nothing to distract you.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“It is a great error to be superior to others....It is such pride as this that makes a man appear a fool, makes him abused by others, and invites disaster. A man who is truly versed in any art will of his own accord be clearly aware of his own deficiency; and therefore, his ambition being never satisfied, he ends by never being proud.”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“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, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“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.”
― Kenko Yoshida

“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.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“There is a deep contradiction in failing to enjoy life and yet fearing death when faced with it.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“A certain man who was learning archery faced the target with two arrows in his hand. But his instructor said, ' A beginner ought never to have a second arrow; for as long as he relies upon the other, he will be careless with his first one. At each shot he ought to think that he is bound to settle it with this particular shaft at any cost.' Doubtless he would not intentionally act foolishly before his instructor with one arrow, when he has but a couple. But, though he may not himself realize that he is being careless, his teacher knows it.
You should bear this advice in mind on every occasion. (In the same way) he who follows the path of learning thinks confidently in the evening that the morning is coming, and in the morning that the evening is coming, and that he will then have plenty of time to study more carefully ; less likely still is he to recognize the waste of a single moment. How hard indeed is it to do a thing at once-now, the instant that you think of it !”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“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, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“Only a boring man will always want things to match; real quality lies in irregularity―another excellent remark.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“Duduk sendirian dibawah sinar lampu,
Buku terkembang di depan,
Bercakap-cakap secara akrab dengan manusia dari generasi yang tak tampak.
Sungguh suatu kenikmatan yang tak bertara”
― Yoshida Kenko

“It is the ephemeral nature of things that makes them wonderful.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“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

“It harms a man more to wound his heart than to hurt his body.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“Similarly, an unmatched set of bound books can be considered unattractive, but Bishop Kōyū impressed me deeply by saying that only a boring man will always want things to match; real quality lies in irregularity - another excellent remark.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“Is there any of the usual social occasions which it is not difficult to avoid? But if you decide that you cannot very well ignore your worldly obligations, and that you will therefore carry them out properly, the demands on your time will multiply, bringing physical hardship and mental tension; in the end, you will spend your whole life pointlessly entangled in petty obligations.
‘The day is ending, the way is long; my life already begins to stumble on its journey.’ The time has come to abandon all ties. I shall not keep promises, nor consider decorum. Let anyone who cannot understand my feelings feel free to call me mad, let him think I am out of my senses, that I am devoid of human warmth. Abuse will not bother me; I shall not listen if praised.”
― Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“The longer you live, the greater your share of shame.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“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.”
― Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“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.”
― Kenko Yoshida

“There is nothing firm or stable in a life spent between larking about together and quarrelling, exuberant one moment, aggrieved and resentful the next. You are forever pondering pros and cons, endlessly absorbed in questions of gain and loss. And on top of delusion comes drunkenness, and in that drunkenness you dream.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“Why should it be so difficult to carry something out right now when you think of it, to seize the instant?”
― Yoshida Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“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 Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

“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.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“Even those who have an air of being wise judge of others only, and do not know themselves. It cannot be in reason to know others and not to know oneself. Therefore one who knows himself may be said to be a man who has knowledge. Though our looks be unpleasing, we do not know it. We do not know that our skill is poor. We do not know that our station is lowly. We do not know that we grow old in years. We do not know that sickness attacks us. We do not know that death is near. We do not know that we have not attained the Way we follow. We do not know what evil is in our own persons, still less what calumny comes from without.”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“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 Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

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

“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 Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“All things of this phenomenal world are mere illusion. They are worth neither discussing nor desiring.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees