“Ah, Anjin-san, that’s because you’re thinking in your own language. To understand Japanese you have to think Japanese. Don’t forget our language is the language of the infinite. It’s all so simple, Anjin-san. Just change your concept of
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Being a Japanese language teacher this is my favorite quote from the book. It's actually on my syllabus and I talk about it with my students every year. I recommend the book to them and then tell them to let me know if they read it and to tell me what the next line is. I've never had a kid contact me though. Bummer. :(
“Then I remember it’s January, a month when only the potatoes are optimistic about warmer weather.”
― The Rural Life
― The Rural Life
“All human cultures are at least in part the legacy of empires and imperial civilisations, and no academic or political surgery can cut out the imperial legacies without killing the patient.”
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
“Lincoln once wrote. “There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something, is the principle of ‘Liberty to all’—the principle that clears the path for all—gives hope to all—and, by consequence, enterprise, and industry to all.”
― American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
― American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
“Ah, Anjin-san, that’s because you’re thinking in your own language. To understand Japanese you have to think Japanese. Don’t forget our language is the language of the infinite. It’s all so simple, Anjin-san. Just change your concept of the world. Japanese is just learning a new art, detached from the world … It’s all so simple.”
― Shōgun: The Epic Novel of Japan
― Shōgun: The Epic Novel of Japan
“What! think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon?—Never! Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.—It sees no distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable then to expect, that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us? And when such a one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs.”
― American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
― American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
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