Inazo Nitobe Quotes & Sayings

dishonor is like a scar on a tree, which time, instead of effacing, only helps to enlarge." Mencius — Inazo Nitobe

When men's fowls and dogs are lost, they know to seek for them again, but they lose their mind and do not know to seek for it. — Inazo Nitobe

Chivalry is itself the poetry of life. - SCHLEGEL, Philosophy of History. — Inazo Nitobe

Filial Piety, which is considered one of the two wheels of the chariot of Japanese ethics - Loyalty being the other. — Inazo Nitobe

Did not Socrates, all the while he unflinchingly refused to concede one iota of loyalty to his daemon, obey with equal fidelity and equanimity the command of his earthly master, the State? His conscience he followed, alive; his country he served, dying. Alack the day when a state grows so powerful as to demand of its citizens the dictates of their consciences! — Inazo Nitobe

Knowledge becomes really such only when it is assimilated in the mind of the learner and shows in his character. — Inazo Nitobe

Tranquillity is courage in repose. — Inazo Nitobe

The feeling of distress is the root of benevolence, therefore a benevolent man is ever mindful of those who are suffering and in distress. — Inazo Nitobe

Kumazawa: - When others blame thee, blame them not; when others are angry at thee, return not anger. Joy cometh only as Passion and Desire part. — Inazo Nitobe

Democracy raises up a natural prince for its leader, and aristocracy infuses a princely spirit among the people. — Inazo Nitobe

Confucius himself has repeatedly taught that external appurtenances are as little a part of propriety as sounds are of music. — Inazo Nitobe

Bushido as an independent code of ethics may vanish, but its power will not perish from the earth; its schools of martial prowess or civic honor may be demolished, but its light and its glory will long survive their ruins. Like its symbolic flower, after it is blown to the four winds, it will still bless mankind with the perfume with which it will enrich life. — Inazo Nitobe

Beneath the instinct to fight there lurks a diviner instinct to love. — Inazo Nitobe

If there is anything to do, there is certainly a best way to do it, and the best way is both the most economical and the most graceful. — Inazo Nitobe

We needed no Shakespeare to feel
though, perhaps, like the rest of the world, we needed him to express it. — Inazo Nitobe

There are, if I may so say, three powerful spirits, which have from time to time, moved on the face of the waters, and given a predominant impulse to the moral sentiments and energies of mankind. These are the spirits of liberty, of religion, and of honor. - HALLAM, Europe in the Middle Ages. — Inazo Nitobe

Read Hearn, the most eloquent and truthful interpreter of the Japanese mind, and you see the working of that mind to be an example of the working of Bushido. — Inazo Nitobe

A samurai was essentially a man of action. — Inazo Nitobe

Our sense of honor is responsible for our exaggerated sensitiveness and touchiness; and if there is the conceit in us with which some foreigners charge us, that, too, is a pathological outcome of honor. Have — Inazo Nitobe

Tranquillity is courage in repose. It is a statical manifestation of valor, as daring deeds are a dynamical. A truly brave man is ever serene; he is never taken by surprise; nothing ruffles the equanimity of his spirit. — Inazo Nitobe

Bushido. The sense of honor which cannot bear being looked down upon as an inferior power, - that was the strongest of motives. — Inazo Nitobe

What is important is to try to develop insights and wisdom rather than mere knowledge, respect someone's character rather than his learning, and nurture men of character rather than mere talents. — Inazo Nitobe

Bu-shi-do means literally Military-Knight-Ways - the ways which fighting nobles should observe in their daily life as well as in their vocation; in a word, the "Precepts of Knighthood," the noblesse oblige of the warrior class. — Inazo Nitobe

Indeed, valour and honour alike required that we should own as enemies in war only such as prove worthy of being friends in peace. — Inazo Nitobe