Nyogen Senzaki

No compliment can be eloquent, except as an expression of indifference.

We judge of man’s wisdom by his hope.

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground.

Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.

Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be.

Fame is proof that the people are gullible.

Every being is in search of truth, but small fears go on preventing you.

I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship.

The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.

Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.

Associate reverently, as much as you can, with your loftiest thoughts.

By indignities men come to dignities.

I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.