Essays in Idleness Quotes

“To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is pleasure beyond compare.”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“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. Someone once told me, "Even when building the imperial palace, they always leave one place unfinished." In both Buddhist and Confucian writings of the philosophers of former times, there are also many missing chapters.”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“It is a great error to be superior to others....It is such pride as this that makes a man appear a fool, makes him abused by others, and invites disaster. A man who is truly versed in any art will of his own accord be clearly aware of his own deficiency; and therefore, his ambition being never satisfied, he ends by never being proud.”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“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.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“A certain man who was learning archery faced the target with two arrows in his hand. But his instructor said, ' A beginner ought never to have a second arrow; for as long as he relies upon the other, he will be careless with his first one. At each shot he ought to think that he is bound to settle it with this particular shaft at any cost.' Doubtless he would not intentionally act foolishly before his instructor with one arrow, when he has but a couple. But, though he may not himself realize that he is being careless, his teacher knows it.
You should bear this advice in mind on every occasion. (In the same way) he who follows the path of learning thinks confidently in the evening that the morning is coming, and in the morning that the evening is coming, and that he will then have plenty of time to study more carefully ; less likely still is he to recognize the waste of a single moment. How hard indeed is it to do a thing at once-now, the instant that you think of it !”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“What a strange demented feeling it gives me when I realize that I have spent whole days before this inkstone, with nothing better to do, jotting down at random whatever nonsensical thoughts have entered my head.”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“Is there any of the usual social occasions which it is not difficult to avoid? But if you decide that you cannot very well ignore your worldly obligations, and that you will therefore carry them out properly, the demands on your time will multiply, bringing physical hardship and mental tension; in the end, you will spend your whole life pointlessly entangled in petty obligations.
‘The day is ending, the way is long; my life already begins to stumble on its journey.’ The time has come to abandon all ties. I shall not keep promises, nor consider decorum. Let anyone who cannot understand my feelings feel free to call me mad, let him think I am out of my senses, that I am devoid of human warmth. Abuse will not bother me; I shall not listen if praised.”
― Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“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.”
― Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under a lamp, a book spread out before you, and to make friends with people of a distant past you have never known.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“Even those who have an air of being wise judge of others only, and do not know themselves. It cannot be in reason to know others and not to know oneself. Therefore one who knows himself may be said to be a man who has knowledge. Though our looks be unpleasing, we do not know it. We do not know that our skill is poor. We do not know that our station is lowly. We do not know that we grow old in years. We do not know that sickness attacks us. We do not know that death is near. We do not know that we have not attained the Way we follow. We do not know what evil is in our own persons, still less what calumny comes from without.”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“Looking back on months and years of intimacy, to feel that your friend, while you still remember the moving words you exchanged, is yet growing distant and living in a world apart—all this is sadder far than partings brought by death.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“A certain recluse monk once remarked, ‘I have relinquished all that ties me to the world, but the one thing that still
haunts me is the beauty of the sky.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“If you are determined to do a certain thing, you must not grieve at the failure of other things, nor be ashamed at the scorn of other people. Without giving up everything for it, the one great thing cannot be accomplished.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness

“Should we only be interested to view the cherry blossoms at their peak, or the moon when it is full? To yearn for the moon when it is raining, or to be closed up in ones room, failing to notice the passing of Spring, is far more moving. Treetops just before they break into blossom, or gardens strewn with fallen flowers are just as worthy of notice. There is much to see in them. Is it any less wonderful to say, in the preface to a poem, that it was written on viewing the cherry blossoms just after they had peaked, or that something had prevented one from seeing them altogether, than to say "on seeing the cherry blossoms"? Of course not. Flowers fall and the moon sets, these are the cyclic things of the world, but still there are brutish people who say that there is nothing left worth seeing, and fail to appreciate.”
― Kenkō Yoshida/吉田兼好, 徒然草

“As a rule the tales which get abroad in the world are false. . . . People always exaggerate things. More so, when months and years have passed and the place is distant do they relate any story they please, or even it put down in writing, so that at least it becomes established fact. . . . Anyhow, it is a world that is full of lies, and we shall make no mistake if we make up our minds that what we hear is really not at all strange and unusual but merely exaggerated in the telling.”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“A certain recluse monk once remarked, ‘I have relinquished all that ties me to the world, but the one thing that still haunts me is the beauty of the sky.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“If you run about the streets pretending to be a madman, then a madman is what you are. If in pretence of being wicked you kill a man, wicked is what you are. A horse that pretends to fleetness must be counted among the fleet; a man who models himself on the saintly Emperor Shun157 will indeed be among his number. Even a deceitful imitation of wisdom will place you among the wise.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: and Hojoki

“Things that seem too common: too many furnishings where one is sitting; too many brushes around an inkstone; too many Buddhas in a home chapel; too many stones and trees and bushes in a garden courtyard; too many children and grandchildren in a house; too many words used when talking to people; too much praise for oneself in a written petition.

Things that don't offend good taste even if numerous: books...”
― Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“On flows the river ceaselessly, nor does its water ever stay the same. The bubbles that float upon its pools now disappear, now form anew, but never endure long. And so it is with people in this world, and with their dwellings.”
― Chomei, Essays in Idleness: and Hojoki

“Should we look at the spring blossoms only in full flower, or the moon only when cloudless and clear? To long for the moon with the rain before you, or to lie curtained in your room while the spring passes unseen, is yet more poignant and deeply moving. A branch of blossoms on the verge of opening, a garden strewn with fading petals, have more to please the eye... In all things, the beginning and end are the most engaging. Does the love of man and woman suggest only their embraces? No, the sorrow of lovers parted before they met, laments over promises betrayed, long lonely nights spent sleepless until dawn, pining thoughts for one in some far place, a woman left sighing over past love in her tumbledown abode – it is these, surely, that embody the romance of love.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness and Hōjōki

“What kind of man will feel depressed at being idle? There is nothing finer than to be alone with nothing to distract him.

If you follow the ways of the world, your heart will be drawn to its sensual defilements and easily led astray; if you go among people, your words will be guided by others' responses rather than come from your heart. There is nothing firm or stable in a life spent between larking about together and quarreling exuberant one moment, aggrieved and resentful the next. You are forever pondering pros and cons, endlessly absorbed in questions of gain and loss. And on top of delusion comes drunkenness, and in that drunkenness you dream.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness and Hōjōki

“Kada sedim u mirnoj meditaciji jedno od osećanja sa kojim se najteže borim je čežnja za stvarima iz prošlosti. Pošto svi ostali legnu, provodim vreme u dugim jesenjim noćima tako što pospremam i stavljam na svoje mesto sve što mi dođe pod ruku. Voleo bih da ne zaboravim stare prepiske. Ponekad, među njima nalazim kaligrafije preminulog prijatelja ili slike koje je naslikao zabave radi, i osećam se isto kao i tada. Čak i za pisma koja su napisali prijatelji koji su još uvek živi, pokušavam, ako je prošlo mnogo godina otkad smo se poslednji put sreli, da se setim događaja, i godine kada su ih napisali. Kako je samo to dirljivo ! Tužno je pomisliti da čovekove lične stvari, ravnodušne prema njegovoj smrti, treba da ostanu nepromenjene dugo nakom njegovog dolaska.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

“Even for a short space you should not imitate folly. If you run down the road in imitation of a madman, you are a madman. If you kill a man in imitation of an evildoer, you are an evildoer. To follow the example of the thousand league steed is to be of its kind. To copy the sage Shun is to be of his company. Even a false imitation of wisdom must be reckoned as wisdom.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness

“85. The hearts of men not being pure, they are not without falsehood, but there is no reason why there should not be some who are by nature honest. It is the way of the world that those who are not themselves upright look with envy on the wisdom of others. At times, some of the very ignorant will look on a wise man with hatred, and revile him, saying, ‘Aiming at great profit he refuses small profit, because he hopes to make a name by dressing in false colours.’ But this very abuse shows that their heart is different from his. Theirs is the nature of the lowest ignorance, which is unchangeable, and they would not refuse to lie, even for small profit.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness

“71. As soon as we hear a person’s name we form in our minds a picture of his appearance; but when we come to see him, he is never the man whose face we had imagined.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness

“Although some will say, ‘After all this time, why stand on ceremony?’ I myself feel that it is a sign of genuine and proper feeling when even the most inseparable friends treat each another, if the occasion demands, with due reserve and decorum. On the other hand, it is sometimes well for people who are not intimate to speak freely.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness

“In hours of quiet thought one cannot but be overcome by longing for the past.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness

“The man is to be envied who lives in a house, not of the modem, garish kind, but set among venerable trees, with a garden where plants grow wild and yet seem to have been disposed with care, verandas and fences tastefully arranged, and all its furnishings simple but antique.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness

“It is desirable to have knowledge of true literature, of com position and versifying, of wind and string instruments; and it is well, moreover, to be learned in precedent and court ceremonies, so as to be a model for others. 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 pressed upon him.”
― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness