Ihara Saikaku Quotes & Sayings

And why do so many people wilfully exhaust their strength in promiscuous living, when their wives are on hand from bridal night till old age - to be taken when required, like fish from a private pond. — Ihara Saikaku

Men take their misfortunes to heart and keep them there. — Ihara Saikaku

If we live by subhuman means we might as well never have had the good fortune to be born human. — Ihara Saikaku

No longer can a young woman feel at ease; for she is ever concerned with the impression that she may be making on others. — Ihara Saikaku

When you send a clerk on business to a distant province, a man of rigid morals is not your best choice. — Ihara Saikaku

Though mothers and fathers give us life, it is money alone which preserves it. — Ihara Saikaku

To think twice in every matter and follow the lead of others is no way to make money. — Ihara Saikaku

If making money is a slow process, losing it is quickly done. — Ihara Saikaku

Harshness is for the good of a boy, soft-heartedness will ruin him. — Ihara Saikaku

To make a fortune some assistance from fate is essential. Ability alone is insufficient. — Ihara Saikaku

Ancient simplicity is gone ... the people of today are satisfied with nothing but finery. — Ihara Saikaku

In life it is training rather than birth which counts. — Ihara Saikaku

Like ice beneath the sun's rays - to such poverty did he fall ... his fortune melted to water. — Ihara Saikaku

Take care! Kingdoms are destroyed by bandits, houses by rats, and widows by suitors. — Ihara Saikaku

The first consideration for all, throughout life, is the earning of a living. — Ihara Saikaku

For each of the four hundred and four bodily ailments celebrated physicians have produced infallible remedies, but the malady which brings the greatest distress to mankind - to even the wisest and cleverest of us - is the plague of poverty. — Ihara Saikaku