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History is the long shadow cast by the past upon the future. Shadows, by nature, lack details.
Do not stir up ghosts to prey upon the living.
But memory was a lump of wax that was reshaped by the knife of consciousness with each recollection,
“Great lords—whether mortal or immortal—do what they do because their concerns are not ours. We suffer because we are the grass upon which giants tread.”
“True courage is to insist on seeing when all around you is darkness.”
The Four Placid Seas are as wide as the years are long. A wild goose flies over a pond, leaving behind a voice in the wind. A man passes through this world, leaving behind a name. Will heroes be forgotten? Will faith be rewarded? Though stars tremble in the storm, our hearts do not waver. Our hair may turn white, but our blood remains crimson.
beautiful. No, that’s not right. It’s beautinificent, brilli-splen-sublimeful, magnidazzlelicious.
“The world is grand and full of wonders.”
It is the natural flow of the universe that sons should exceed their fathers, and students shall surpass their teachers.
The only duty any child owes to her parent is to live a life that is true to her nature.”
Not every mind learns the same way. A knife needs to be sharpened against stone, but a pearl needs to be polished with soft cloth. I found infinite joy and comfort in the solitude of repetitious drilling and practice, but perhaps a different method is needed for this one.
Engineering is the art of solving problems by combining existing machines into new machines, and harnessing the effects of the sub-machines to accomplish a novel effect.
Fury A mind on fire. A flower of frozen lava. Open, my stony soul! A breeze over the heart.
‘A Moralist is someone who can tell you how everyone ought to behave except himself.’ ”
“If ten scholars were to start a rebellion, it would take them three years of argument just to agree on a name for their faction.”
Change is the only constant.”
“If the young do not have radical ideas, the world will never change,”
Talent can wear a dress as well as a robe.
“The proudest moment in a teacher’s life,” said Ruthi, “is when he learns something new from his student.”
“In a time of peace, books are more important than swords,”
The frothy whale’s way has no end; Each stranger is also a friend.
What courage it took for the starving and the poor to continue the mere act of existence, of survival, of endurance. Such quiet acts of heroism were not celebrated, and yet they made up the foundation of civilization, far more than all the honorable sentiments of the Ano sages and the pretty words of the nobles.
“It’s the duty of fathers to fight wars so that their children don’t have to.”
We all must pay for the consequences of our actions.”
In Damu the scarlet Phaédo sits, For three years, snowbound, all sounds he omits. Then, one morn he sings to call forth the sun. Stunned, the world stands still to listen as one.”
“You speak of destiny, yet what is destiny but accumulated chance made into a story in retrospect?”
