Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

Work is love made visible.

Life is like a long journey carrying a heavy burden. Never hurry.

-- The founder of Japan's Tokugawa shogunate

A human life of fifty years, compared to the span beneath heaven, is nothing but a dream, an illusion.

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

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

-- The peasant who became ruler of all Japan

I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me.

-- The dominant warlord of China's Three Kingdoms era

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

-- Virginia Woolf

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.

-- Virginia Woolf