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Singlemindedness is all-powerful.

Yamamoto Tsunetomo

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Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Age: 60 †
Born: 1659
Born: June 11
Died: 1719
Died: November 30
Bushi
Philosopher
Writer
Hizen Domain
Powerful

More quotes by Yamamoto Tsunetomo

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A samurai will use a toothpick even though he has not eaten. Inside the skin of a dog, outside the hide of a tiger.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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Tether even a roasted chicken.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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Go ahead and gamble a lie. A person who will not tell you seven lies within a hundred yards is useless as a man.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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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
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By being impatient, matters are damaged and great works cannot be done
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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One must know the so-called 'lesson of a downpour. A man, caught in a sudden rain en route, dashes along the road not to get wet or drenched. Once one takes it for granted that in rain he naturally gets wet, he can be in a tranquil frame of mind even when soaked to the skin. This lesson applies to everything.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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It is better to have some unhappiness while one is still young, for if a person does not experience some bitterness, his disposition will not settle down.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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When confronted with two alternatives, life and death, one is to choose death without hesitation.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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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.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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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
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The person who practices an art is an artist, not a samurai, and one should have the intention of being called a samurai.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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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
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It is bad when one thing becomes two. One should not look for anything else in the Way of the Samurai. If one understands things in this manner, he should be able to hear about all Ways and be more and more in accord with his own.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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The deepest love is often hidden.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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An affected laugh shows lack of self-respect in a man and lewdness in a woman. It is carelessness to go about with one's hands inside the slits in the sides of his hakama.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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It is difficult for a fool's habits to change to selflessness.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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When something out of the ordinary happens, it is ridiculous to say that it is a mystery or a portent of something to come... the mystery is created in (their) minds, and by waiting for disaster, it is from their very minds that it occurs.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo