"He argued that when the truth is not known, we desire to know it, but once we do know it, there are not a few cases in which we repent our knowing and envy that earlier time when we lived blissfully ignorant."

"Harshness is for the good of a boy, soft-heartedness will ruin him."

"If making money is a slow process, losing it is quickly done."

"Like ice beneath the sun's rays — to such poverty did he fall...his fortune melted to water."

"If we live by subhuman means we might as well never have had the good fortune to be born human."

"To make a fortune some assistance from fate is essential. Ability alone is insufficient."

"For each of the four hundred and four bodily ailments celebrated physicians have produced infallible remedies, but the malady which brings the greatest distress to mankind — to even the wisest and cleverest of us — is the plague of poverty."

"To think twice in every matter and follow the lead of others is no way to make money."

"When you send a clerk on business to a distant province, a man of rigid morals is not your best choice."

"There is always something to upset the most careful of human calculations."

"Take care! Kingdoms are destroyed by bandits, houses by rats, and widows by suitors."

"Men take their misfortunes to heart, and keep them there. A gambler does not talk about his losses; the frequenter of brothels, who finds his favorite engaged by another, pretends to be just as well off without her; the professional street-brawler is quiet about the fights he has lost; and a merchant who speculates on goods will conceal the losses he may suffer. All act as one who steps on dog dung in the dark."

"Heaven says nothing, and the whole earth grows rich beneath its silent rule. Men, too, are touched by heaven's virtue; yet, in their greater part, they are creatures of deceit. They are born, it seems, with an emptiness of soul, and must take their qualities wholly from things without. To be born thus empty into this modern age, this mixture of good and ill, and yet steer through life on an honest course to the splendors of success — this is a feat reserved for paragons of our kind, a task beyond the nature of the normal man."

"The first consideration for all, throughout life, is the earning of a living."

"In life it is training rather than birth which counts."

"Though mothers and fathers give us life, it is money alone which preserves it."

"Ancient simplicity is gone...the people of today are satisfied with nothing but finery."

"My body, now close to fifty years of age, has become an old tree that bears bitter peaches, a snail which has lost its shell, a bagworm separated from its bag; it drifts with the winds and clouds that know no destination. Morning and night I have eaten traveler's fare, and have held out for alms a pilgrim's wallet."

"Mount Fuji, towering up from the earth, supporting the firmament so high above, seems to rend open the clouds that the sun and moon might shine through. Viewed from any position, the mountain seemingly presents its finest vista, infinitely changing. The poet is at a loss for suitable verses; the scholar finds his words lacking; the painter, throwing down his brushes, scurries off. Even if by chance an immortal should descend from Mount Miǎogūyè, would he be able to compose suitable verses, or paint a faithful picture?"

"Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."

"行く春や鳥啼き魚の目は泪 yuku haru ya tori naki uo no me wa namida"

"夏草や兵どもが夢の跡 natsukusa ya tsuwamonodomo ga yume no ato"

"静けさや岩に滲み入る蝉の声 shizukesaya iwa ni shimiiru semi no koe"

"朝顔に我は飯食ふ男かな asagao ni ware wa meshi kû otoko kana"

"京にても京なつかしや時鳥 kyou nitemo kyou natsukashi ya hototogisu"

"古池や蛙飛び込む水の音 furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto"

"やがて死ぬけしきは見えず蝉の声 yagate shinu keshiki wa miezu semi no koe"

"旅に病で夢は枯野をかけ廻る tabi ni yande yume wa kareno wo kake-meguru"

"Moon almost full I'm thirty-nine a child still."

"古人の跡を求めず，古人の求めしところを求めよ。 kojin no ato wo motomezu, kozjin no motometaru tokoro wo motomeyo"

"I feel lonely as I gaze at the moon. I feel lonely as I think about myself, and I feel lonely as I ponder upon this wretched life of mine. I want to cry out that I am lonely, but no one asks me how I feel."

"Even if you have three or four extra syllables—or as many as five or seven—you need not worry as long as the verse sounds right."

"It rains during the morning. No visitors today. I feel lonely and amuse myself by writing at random. These are the words: Who mourns makes grief his master. Who drinks makes pleasure his master."

"It was a rainy day when I crossed over the Hakone Barrier, and all the mountains were veiled in clouds."

"The yellow rose petals—one by one—gone into roaring waterfalls"

"... the sparrow’s chirp, the crow’s caw, the willow’s green, the cherry blossom’s pink, are the truth of the Zen master and the essence of Basho's style."

"He who creates three to five haiku poems during a lifetime is a haiku poet. He who attains to completes ten is a master."

"The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of."

"The fact that Saigyō composed the poem that begins, "I shall be unhappy without loneliness," shows that he made loneliness his master. He also wrote: In the mountain village who are you calling, yobuko-bird? I thought you lived alone."

"Studying texts and stiff meditation can make you lose your Original Mind. A solitary tune by a fisherman, though, can be an invaluable treasure. Dusk rain on the river, the moon peeking in and out of the clouds; Elegant beyond words, he chants his songs night after night."

"From the world of passions returning to the world of passions: There is a moment's pause. If it rains, let it rain, if the wind blows, let it blow."

"It has the original mouth but remains wordless; It is surrounded by a magnificent mound of hair. Sentient beings can get completely lost in it But it is also the birthplace of all the Buddhas of the ten thousand worlds."

"Eight inches strong, it is my favourite thing; If I'm alone at night, I embrace it fully - A beautiful woman hasn't touched it for ages. Within my fundoshi there is an entire universe!"

"In all the kingdom southward From the center of the earth Where is he who understands my Zen? Should the master Kido himself appear He wouldn't be worth a worn-out cent."

"Having no destination, I am never lost."

"Ikkyū Zenji is the most remarkable monk in the history of Japanese Buddhism, the only Japanese comparable to the great Chinese Zen masters."

"His "mad" behavior was perhaps his way of disrupting the corrupt and feeble Zen he saw around him."

"South of Mount Sumeru Who understands my Zen? Call Master Kido over- He's not worth a cent."

"Natural, reckless, correct skill; Yesterday's clarity is today's stupidity The universe has dark and light, entrust oneself to change One time, shade the eyes and gaze afar at the road of heaven."