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By being impatient, matters are damaged and great works cannot be done

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
Damaged
Impatient
Matters
Works
Cannot
Matter
Done
Great

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Even if one's head were to be suddenly cut off, he should be able to do one more action with certainty.
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If you are slain in battle, you should be resolved to have your corpse facing the enemy.
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Even if it seems certain that you will lose, retaliate. Neither wisdom nor technique has a place in this. A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death. By doing this, you will awaken from your dreams.
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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.
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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.
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A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death.
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You cannot tell whether a person is good or bad by his vicissitudes in life. Good and bad fortune are matters of fate.
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Tether even a roasted chicken.
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The end is important in all things.
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The saying 'the arts aid the body' is for samurai of other regions. For samurai of the Nabeshima clan the arts bring ruin to the body.
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Human life is truly a short affair. It is better to live doing the things that you like.
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To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not.
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It is a principle of the art of war that one should simply lay down his life and strike. If one's opponent also does the same, it is a even match. Defeating one's opponent is then a matter of faith and destiny.
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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.
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Singlemindedness is all-powerful.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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If a retainer will just think about what he is to do for the day at hand, he will be able to do anything. If it is a single day's work, one should be able to put up with it. Tomorrow, too is but a single day.
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By inconsistency and frivolity we stray from the Way and show ourselves to be beginners. In this we do much harm.
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