Writing is only good for recording names. Swordsmanship defeats one man — that's not worth learning. I want to learn what defeats ten thousand.

書足以記名姓而已。剣一人敵、不足学。学万人敵。

Heaven destroys me — it is not a failure of warfare.

There is nothing to be done about it.

-- The revolutionary warlord who dismantled feudal Japan's medieval order and launched the country toward unification

Heaven destroys me — it is not a failure of warfare.

-- The 'Hegemon-King of Western Chu' whose raw military genius made him the most feared commander of ancient China's civil wars

Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.

-- The Byzantine Empire's greatest general

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.

-- Hermann Hesse