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.

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

If the cuckoo will not sing, kill it.

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

If you do not know you may fall halfway through your work, you will not fall halfway through.

-- The visionary who brokered the alliance that overthrew Japan's feudal government and launched the country into modernity

My strength uproots mountains, my spirit overshadows the world.

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

War is merely the continuation of politics by other means.

-- The Prussian military theorist whose 'On War' became the most influential work of strategic theory in Western history

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

-- The American general who commanded in the Pacific War and oversaw Japan's postwar occupation

The purpose of maintaining military forces for a hundred years is solely to preserve peace.

-- The Japanese admiral who planned the Pearl Harbor attack and commanded the Combined Fleet during the Pacific War's decisive early phase