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If life were eternal, all interest and anticipation would vanish. It is uncertainty which lends it fascination.

Yoshida Kenko

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Yoshida Kenko
Anticipation
Uncertainty
Eternal
Interest
Would
Life
Lends
Vanish
Fascination

More quotes by Yoshida Kenko

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Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless? To long for the moon while looking on the rain, to lower the blinds and be unaware of the passing of the spring - these are even more deeply moving. Branches about to blossom or gardens strewn with flowers are worthier of our admiration.
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Life's most precious gift is uncertainty.
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Ambition never comes to an end.
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It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met.
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A certain recluse, I know not who, once said that no bonds attached him to this life, and the only thing he would regret leaving was the sky.
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Even members of the nobility, let alone persons of no consequence, would do well not to have children.
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What a strange, demented feeling it gives me when I realize I have spent whole days before this ink stone, with nothing better to do, jotting down at random whatever nonsensical thoughts have entered my head.
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... For such as truly love the world, a thousand years would fade like the dream of one night.
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To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare.
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The truth is at the beginning of anything and its end are alike touching.
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The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty
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The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under the lamp, a book spread out before you, and to make friends with people of a distant past you have never known.
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One should write not unskillfully in the running hand, be able to sing in a pleasing voice and keep good time to music and, lastly, a man should not refuse a little wine when it is pressed upon him.
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Though a man excels in everything, unless he has been a lover his life is lonely, and he may be likened to a jewelled cup which can contain no wine.
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The true criminal must be defined as a man who commits a crime though he is as decently fed and clothed as others.
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Leave undone whatever you hesitate to do.
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You should never put the new antlers of a deer to your nose and smell them. They have little insects that crawl into the nose and devour the brain.
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If you imagine that once you have accomplished your ambitions you will have time to turn to the Way, you will discover that your ambitions never come to an end.
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In everything, no matter what it may be, uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth
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There is nothing finer than to be alone with nothing to distract you.
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