Soyen Shaku

Upon retiring, sleep as if you had entered your last sleep. Upon awakening, leave your bed behind you instantly as if you had cast away a pair of old shoes.

Have the fearless attitude of a hero and the loving heart of a child.

Our spontaneous action is always the best. You cannot, with your best deliberation and heed, come so close to any question as your spontaneous glance shall bring you.

They have a right to censure that have a heart to help: the rest is cruelty, not justice.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

Slavery it is that makes slavery; freedom, freedom. The slavery of women happened when the men were slaves of kings.

Don’t order any black things. Rejoice in his memory; and be radiant: leave grief to the children. Wear violet and purple. Be patient with the poor people who will snivel: they don’t know; and they think they will live for ever, which makes death a division instead of a bond.

Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.

Don’t be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don’t bewail and moan. Omit the negative propositions. Challenge us with incessant affirmatives. Don’t waste yourself in rejection, or bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

I have heard with admiring submission the experience of the lady who declared that the sense of being perfectly well dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquility which religion is powerless to bestow.

The man is either mad, or he is making verses.

Never do wrong when people are looking.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity: no really self-respecting woman would take advantage of it.

A man’s action is only a picture book of his creed.