Tesshu Yamaoka Quotes & Sayings

If you want to obtain the secrets of such wonderful techniques, drill yourself, harden yourself, undergo severe training, abandoned body and mind; follow this course for years and you will naturally reach the profoundest levels. To know if water is hot or cold you must taste it yourself. — Yamaoka Tesshu

Zen is like soap. First you wash with it, and then you wash off the soap. — Yamaoka Tesshu

I had been a Maoist, and then when the Gang of Four was overthrown, I was completely distraught. I was bedridden for three weeks; it was a very painful experience for me. Not only because I had been wrong, but because I felt really embarrassed that I had been lecturing and pontificating with such self-confidence. — Norman Finkelstein

Fortunes are built during the down market and collected in the up market. — Jason Calacanis

Sundays kill more people than bombs. — Charles Bukowski

I am, by nature, an optimist. — Martin Heinrich

Do not think that this is all there is. More and more wonderful teachings exist ... — Yamaoka Tesshu

What have I got to lose? Oh, yes, that's right, my fucking sanity. — Anna Bloom

My brother and I were both teenage writers, and he was, I have to say, better than I was, but he went into science, and I went into writing. — Margaret Atwood

The moon does not think to be reflected, nor does the water think to reflect, in the Hirosawa Pond. — Yamaoka Tesshu

Thirst for victory leads to defeat; not tiring of defeat leads to victory. — Yamaoka Tesshu

The world is wide, full of happenings. Keep this in mind and never believe 'I'm the onlyone who knows.' — Yamaoka Tesshu

As a samurai, I must strengthen my character; as a human being I must perfect my spirit — Yamaoka Tesshu

The search for a way to eradicate this scourge ... is left to incidental dabbling and uncoordinated research. - The Washington Post, 1946 — Siddhartha Mukherjee