プロメシューム

“And so the months and the years have gone by, but little has turned out well for me. Each new year in turn has failed to bring happiness. Indeed, as I think of the unsatisfying events I have recorded here, I wonder whether I have been describing anything of substance. Call it, this journal of mine, a shimmering of the summer sky.”
― Michitsuna no Haha

“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.”
― Matsuo Bashō

“Rather than recall
in these flowers
the fragrance of the past,
I would like to hear this nightingale's voice,
to know if his song is as sweet.”
― Izumi Shikibu, The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan

“It is useless to talk with those who do not understand one and troublesome to talk with those who criticize from a feeling of superiority. Especially one-sided persons are troublesome. Few are accomplished in many arts and most cling narrowly to their own opinion.”
― Murasaki Shikibu , Diaries of court ladies of old Japan