Gentlemen, life is short. Never waste your mind on trivial matters. Study much, work much, think much, laugh much.
諸君、人生は短い。決して下らぬことに頭を悩ますな。大いに勉強し、大いに働き、大いに考え、大いに笑え。
Politicians
Ōkuma Shigenobu
Meiji-Taisho statesman (1838-1922). Twice prime minister, founder of Waseda University, champion of parliamentary rule. Lost his leg to a bomb in 1889 and issued the controversial Twenty-One Demands on China in 1915.
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Ōkuma Shigenobu's Other Quotes
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My predecessors ruled but I know nothing about them, and so I do what I do that people may remember me.
-- Mansa Musa
A nation's hundred-year plan rests on education.
-- Itō Hirobumi
There can be no diplomacy without the power to defend oneself.
-- Shigeru Yoshida
Nothing is more impossible than what Napoleon faced.
-- Ōkuma Shigenobu
I am a rock of order.
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A nation should not have permanent friends, only permanent interests.
-- Otto von Bismarck