Eiji Yoshikawa Quotes - Page 2

Monks transgress the Laws of the Buddha, stir up the common people, store wealth and weapons, and spread rumors; under the guise of religion, they are nothing more than self-serving agitators.

There's not much benefit in attacking an empty house.

If a man wanted to put the entire universe in his breast, he couldn't do it with his chest stuck out.

Don't yield! Keep up your courage! The same sun looks down on all of us!

A wise man who cultivates wisdom may sometimes drown in it.

Beyond the shadow of a doubt, food was more important than a woman's suffering.

The world is a stone wall ... and they have put the stones so close together that there is not a single crack through which one may enter.

It does happen, of course, that the priesthood has been on bad terms with womankind for some three thousand years. You see, Buddhism teaches that women are evil. Fiends. Messengers of hell. I've spent years immersed in the scriptures, so it's no accident that you and I fight all the time.

To the courtiers flushed with wine, life was pleasure, and pleasure life.

The bitter winds in February were sometimes called the First East Winds, but the longing for spring somehow made them seem more piercing.

Oh, you crows! Feast away! What a spread! Soup straight from the eye sockets! And thick red sake! But don't have too much Or you'll surely get drunk.

To Kiyomori each stall, each soul here seemed borne under by the crushing weight of the world; everyone here was a pitiful weed, trodden underfoot -- a conglomeration of human lives putting down roots in this slime, living and letting live in the struggle to survive; and he was stirred by the fearful and magnificent courage communicated by the scene.

People tend to be put off by the idea of selling sex, but if you spend a winter's night with one of them and talk with her about her family and so on, you're likely to find she's just like any other woman.