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Not to borrow the strength of another, nor to rely on one's own strength to cut off past and future thoughts, and not to live within the everyday mind... then the Great Way is right before your eyes.

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
Live
Thoughts
Right
Strength
Eyes
Samurai
Great
Within
Borrow
Mind
Future
Warrior
Way
Eye
Rely
Another
Everyday
Past
Cutting

More quotes by 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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Human life is truly a short affair. It is better to live doing the things that you like.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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If one thinks only of winning, a sordid victory will be worse than a defeat. For the most part, it becomes a squalid defeat.
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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All of man’s work is a bloody business. That fact, today, is considered foolish, affairs are finished cleverly with words alone, and jobs that require effort are avoided. I would like young men to have some understanding of this.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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Purity is something that cannot be attained except by piling effort upon effort.
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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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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A warrior should not say something fainthearted, even casually. He should set his mind to this beforehand. Even in trifling matters the depths of one's heart can be seen.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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As everything in this world is but a sham, Death is the only sincerity.
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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There is not a man who does not get senile by the time he reaches sixty. And when one thinks that he will not be senile, he is already so.
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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There are few people who will make mistakes with fire after having once been burned.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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I have found that the Way of the samurai is death. This means that when you are compelled to choose between life and death, you must quickly choose death.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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Covetousness, anger and foolishness are things to sort out well. When bad things happen in the world, if you look at them comparatively, they are not unrelated to these three things.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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If a warrior is not unattached to life and death, he will be of no use whatsoever. The saying that “All abilities come from one mind” sounds as though it has to do with sentient matters, but it is in fact a matter of being unattached to life and death. With such non-attachment one can accomplish any feat.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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Continue to spur a running horse.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
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A warrior is worthless unless he rises above others and stands strong in the midst of a storm.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo