Takashi Matsuoka QUOTES

1 " Loyalty was the most fundamental of samurai virtues. Without loyalty there was nothing. To Kawakami, who had looked at loyalty from every possible angle - examining loyalty was, after all, his occupation - it had become increasingly clear that the days of personal allegiance were coming to an end. Loyalty, in the future, must be to a cause, a principle, an idea, not a man or a clan. "

― Takashi Matsuoka

2 " The katana has been the weapon of the samurai since time immemorial. Consider the inner meaning.

Our blade is honed only on a single edge. Why? It is because with the dull edge against our flesh, the katana becomes our shield. This cannot happen with a two-edged sword, One day, in the midst of a melee, you may owe your life to the dull edge rather than the sharp one. Let this contrast remind you that attack and defense are one. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

3 " And when the moment came, even then Genji would be fortunate. He would die without fear, drenched in his own heart's blood, in the embrace of a beautiful woman, and she would weep for him.

What samurai could hope for more? "

― Takashi Matsuoka

4 " The sages say happiness and sorrow are one. Is this because in finding the first, we also find the second? "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

5 " I enter a time of much peril, and am more likely to fail and die than succeed and live.”
“Those who succeed and those who fail are both destined to die. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

6 " Never like anybody you can’t trust, Cruz said. You might think you’re a smart boy, you can like somebody and still keep your eyes open. But there’s something about liking that dismays your attention, I don’t know what it is. You allow yourself to like somebody you don’t trust, and one night soon enough, you’ll wake up to find an ax cleaved in the back of your skull, and you’ll have your own foolish liking to thank for it. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

7 " Lack of fear is not the mark of courage. It is the mark of idiocy. Courage is knowing fear and overcoming it. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

8 " When we let ourselves see only what we expect to see,” Genji said, “we view the contents of our own minds and miss what is truly before us. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

9 " What will happen will happen, whether you know of it or not. Believe me, it is not always better to know."
“Knowing must be better,” Shigeru said. “Then no one can take you by surprise.”
“Someone will always take you by surprise, because no matter how much you know, you can never know everything. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

10 " Crisis changes people,” Genji said, filling Heiko’s cup in turn. “If they are fortunate, crisis shows them what truly matters. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

11 " You saved my life. You must let me thank you with a gift.”
“I could just as well say you saved mine. Neither of us would have survived without the other.”
“Then you owe me a gift as well. I will give you Apple Valley. What will you give me? "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

12 " When we let ourselves see only what we expect to see," Genji said, "we view the contents of our own minds and miss what is truly before us. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

13 " The samurai all practiced the disciplines of the Zen sect, a religion without preaching, indeed without any doctrine she could perceive, all serious and grim and silent. Was it a religion at all? She once asked Genji to explain it to her, and he just laughed.
There is little to explain. I only play at it. I am too lazy to truly do it.
What is done?
He sat in the contortionist position called the lotus, with each foot on the opposite thigh, and closed his eyes.
And what is it you are doing? It seems to me you are doing nothing at all.
I am letting go, Genji said.
Letting go? Letting go of what?
First, bodily tension. Second, thoughts. Third, everything else.
To what end?
You are so much a person of the West, Genji said, always thinking of ends. The means are the end. You sit. You let go.
And once you have let go, then what?
Then you let go of letting go.
I don’t understand.
Genji smiled, uncrossed his legs, and said, Old Zengen would say that’s a good beginning. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

14 " How fragile life was, she thought, how unpredictable. We flatter ourselves, thinking we are actors on a stage, geniuses who write our own plays, extemporize our words, and shift major plot lines and the most subtle of nuances at our every whim. Perhaps wooden Bunraku puppets feel the same way. They do not notice the puppeteers who guide their every move. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

15 " It is important to know when to delegate authority. "

― Takashi Matsuoka

16 " She looked down and saw Genji on his warhorse, and it was he who was out of place, not herself. The incongruity of a samurai in her orchard made her laugh.
Her own laughter brought her back.
Coming back, she began to weep.
“My home was in Apple Valley,” Emily said. “Another Apple Valley.”
After a time, Genji said, “This place was yours before you ever saw it. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

17 " The lack of fear is not the mark of courage. It is the mark of idiocy. Courage is knowing fear and overcoming it. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

18 " Words can damage. Silence can heal. Knowing when to speak and when not to speak is the wisdom of sages. Knowledge can hinder. Ignorance can liberate. Knowing when to know and when not to know is the wisdom of prophets. Unimpeded by words, silence, knowledge, or ignorance, a fluent blade cuts cleanly. This is the wisdom of warriors. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

19 " All true communication, even between two people speaking the same language, requires translation," Genji said. "In the end, our hearts must hear what cannot be spoken. "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

20 " Some say there is no difference among the barbarians, that they are all the same offal-eating abominations. This is false. The Portuguese will trade guns for women. The Dutch demand gold. The English want treaties.
From this, you should know that the Portuguese and the Dutch are easily understood, and the English are the most dangerous. Therefore, study the English carefully and ignore the others.

SUZUME–NO–KUMO
(1641) "

― Takashi Matsuoka , Cloud of Sparrows

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