人の意見を聞いてから出る知恵は、本当の知恵ではない。

I came as dew, I vanish as dew — all that I was, all I achieved at Naniwa, is a dream within a dream.

If the cuckoo will not sing, I shall make it want to sing.

Youth on horseback has passed. The world is at peace and white hairs multiply. With what remains of life that heaven permits, how can I not enjoy it?

-- The 'One-Eyed Dragon' of northern Japan who carved

一生懸命だと知恵が出る、中途半端だと愚痴が出る、いい加減だと言い訳が出る。

-- The 'Tiger of Kai' who transformed his landlocked mountain domain into one of Sengoku Japan's most formidable military powers

People are the castle, people are the walls, people are the moat. Compassion makes allies; cruelty makes enemies.

-- The 'Tiger of Kai' who transformed his landlocked mountain domain into one of Sengoku Japan's most formidable military powers

不自由を常と思えば不足なし。

-- The founder of Japan's Tokugawa shogunate

If the cuckoo will not sing, kill it.

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

Without first establishing internal governance, there can be no external campaigns.

-- The ruthlessly effective architect of modern Japan who built the Meiji state's institutions while his more charismatic peers took the glory