James Clavell Quotes

His mind docketing the important things for future transcription.

Isn't it only through laughter that we become one with the gods and thus can endure life and can overcome all the horror and waste and suffering here on earth? ... Isn't it only through laughter we can stay human?

Who knows what tomorrow will bring
Tomorrow is in the hands of God
Tomorrow will be a lovely day.

Fallibility in a leader is very trying. Isn't it? They spill so much of other people's blood.

Be thou of Zen. Remember, in tranquillity, that the Absolute, the Tao, is within thee, that no priest or cult or dogma or book or saying or teaching or teacher stands between Thou and It. Know that Good and Evil are irrelevant, I and Thou irrelevant, Inside and Outside irrelevant as are Life and Death. Enter into the Sphere where there is no fear of death nor hope of afterlife, where thou art free of the impediments of life or the needs of salvation. Thou art thyself the Tao. Be thou, now, a rock against which the waves of life rush in vain.

Women don't have wisdom or knowledge in political things.

So much of "normal, civilized" life is bull that you can't imagine ... What frightens you, doesn't frighten me, what frightens me, you'd laugh at.

Perhaps that is why we love life so much, Anjin-san. You see, we have to. Death is part of our air and sea and earth. You should know, Anjin-san, in this Land of Tears, death is our heritage.

You're a cruel, cold-gutted, heartless bastard but you've got majesty, no doubt about that.

You must be patient before you criticize.

Damn what you like, Pieterzoon. But don't damn liquor. It's the stuff of life!

Horses are far worse than men for treachery...

Life and death are the same ... Leave karma to karma.

The word of God surpasses earthly orders.

The law may upset reason but reason may never upset the law, or our whole society will shred like an old tatami. The law may be used to confound reason, reason must certainly not be used to overthrow the law.

Only merchants have money to waste, and what are they but parasites who create nothing, grow nothing, make nothing but feed off another's labor?

How can a man be so brave and so stupid, so gentle and so cruel, so warming and so detestable
all at the same time?

Of what real value is a title? The power is the only important thing

If you're a sailor, best not know how to swim. Swimming only prolongs the inevitable - if the sea wants you and your time has come.

First the priests arrive. Then the conquistadores.

Karma is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very important. The strong are the patient ones, Anjin-san. patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don't give way to the seven, you're patient, then you'll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity.

Always remember, child" her first teacher had impressed on her, "that to think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral you down into ever-increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that need disipline –training- is about. So train your mind to dwell on sweet perfumes, the touch of this silk, tender raindrops against the shoji, the curve of the flower arrangement, the tranquillity of dawn. Then, at length, you won't have to make such a great effort and you will be of value to yourself,…

I write short stories. They may appear big in size, but when you consider it, they're four or five novels in one ... In return for picking up one of my books, I'm trying to give them value for their money ... the goal of writing any book is to create the illusion that what you are reading is reality and you're part of it.

It's always important to take time to study men
important men. Friends and enemies.

Anger is something you should only vent in front of intimates, and friends and relations. Never be angry in front of strangers because you lose face.

Patience means restraining yourself. There are seven emotions, Joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear, and hate. If a man doesn't give way to these, he's patient. I'm not as strong as I might be but I'm patient.

Reminding himself to remember forever that the pen's a long arm from the grave.

In war and in peace, a good enemy can be more valuable than a good ally.

Time has no single measure, that time can be like frost or lightning or a tear or siege or storm or sunset, or even a rock.

Wars are fought by teenagers, you realize that. They really ought to be fought by the politicians and old people who start these wars. (Interview with Don Swaim of CBS Radio-1986)

The sky
Scorched by the sun,
Weeps
Fecund tears.

Money means nothing to a real man.

What you do with strangers is ignore them for. No second chance, no sorry I did it, never accept an apology, but never, ever get angry with strangers.

What can I do to help thee?" he asked.
"Believe there is a tomorrow.

It's unseemly to criticize without knowledge.

It is simple to catch a man, all you need to know is the right bait.

Changi for me - of course it's easy to be wise after the event, and to discuss it cleverly after the event - was about as near as you can get to being dead and still be alive.

He took a deep breath of air. Once again he caught a strangeness on the wind, neither pleasant nor unpleasant, neither odor nor perfume - just strange, and curiously exciting. "Superintendent, what's that smell? Casey noticed it too, the moment Sven opened the door." Armstrong hesitated. Then he smiled. "That's Hong Kong's very own, Mr. Bartlett. It's money.

quarreling avails nothing.

Leave the problems of God to God and karma to karma. Today you're here and nothing you do will change that. Today you are alive and here and honored and blessed with good fortune. Look at this suset, it's beautiful, neh? This sunset exists. Tomorrow does not exist. There is only now. Please look. It is so beautiful and it will never happen ever again, never, not this sunset, never in all infinity. Lose yourself in it, make yourself one with nature and do not worry about karma, yours, mine, or that of the village.

It's only Christian to be chivalrous to your enemies.

Why do you weep, child? We of the Floating World live only for the moment, giving all our time to the pleasures of cherry blossoms and snow and maple leaves, the calling of a cricket, the beauty of the moon, waning and growing and being reborn, singing our songs and drinking cha and saké, knowing perfumes and the touch of silks, caressing for pleasure, and drifting, always drifting. Listen, child: never sad, always drifting as a lily on the current in the stream of life. How lucky you are, Kiku-chan, you're a Princess of Ukiyo, the Floating World, drift, live for the moment. . . .

Secrets never leave you in peace, however much you wish or pray.

Like dew I was born
Like dew I vanish
..and all that I have ever done
Is but a dream
Within a dream

Godrot opium, he thought. But he knew that his life was inexorably tied to opium - and that without it neither The Noble House nor the British Empire could exist.

I'm saying that some men are saints. Some are happy being meek and humble and unambitious. Some men are born content to be second-best.

Let's piss on the bargain.

Gods are like people. They believe anything if you tell them right way.

Sometimes it's wiser to give a quarry extra line
that's how to catch a fish, neh?

You must learn to control the filth of your tongue, my son. It will send you to hell.

If the Truth is already clear, what is the use of meditation?' " " 'And if the Truth is hidden?' " Toranaga said. " 'It's already clear,' " Hiro-matsu answered correctly. The quotation was from the ancient Tantric Buddhist teacher, Saraha.

Yabu-san's a violent man with no scruples whatsoever. He honors nothing but his own interests. Duty, loyalty, tradition, mean nothing to him. His mind has flashes of great cunning, even brilliance. He's equally dangerous as ally or enemy.' 'All commendable virtues. What's to be said against him?' 'A

Sometimes full agreements, delicate agreements, should not be reduced into writing.

To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline and training is all about.

There are seven emotions, neh? Joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear, and hate. If a man doesn't give way to these, he's patient. I'm

They put me with a blind monk who taught me how to massage and to see again with my fingers. Now my fingers tell me more than my eyes used to, I think.

Isn't man but a blossom taken by the wind, and only the mountains and the sea and the stars and this Land of the Gods real and everlasting?

Three big islands, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Honshu? And thousands of little ones. There's another island far to the north - some say it's the mainland - called Hokkaido, but only hairy natives

I can't use hope against swords.

Blackthorne, beside the gates, was still turmoiled by his boundless joy at her reprieve and he remembered how his own will had been stretched that night of his near-seppuku, when he had had to get up as a man and walk home as a man unsupported, and became samurai. And he watched her, despising the need for this courage, yet understanding it, even honoring it.

There is no need to fear. We are all in God's hands.

All stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending, and if they're any good, the ending is a beginning.

We have a saying that time has no single measure, that time can be like frost or lightning or a tear or siege or storm or sunset, or even like a rock.

The earth's round, like an orange, but this map is like its skin, cut off in ovals, north to south, laid flat and stretched a bit at the top and bottom. A Dutchman called Mercator invented the way to do this accurately twenty years ago. It's the first accurate world map.

Always remember, child ... that to think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral you down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one onf the things that discipline - training - is about.

A man has a false heart in his mouth for all the world to see, another in his breast to show all his special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is not known to anyone except himself alone.

Isn't it only laughter we can stay human?

Death and life are the same thing. This is the immutable law of nature.

The point is we both know life and understand death - and both believe treatment in hell and everywhere else depends on money.

Without privacy, civilized life could not exist.

What are clouds, but an excuse for the sky? What is life, but an escape from death?

Changi became my university instead of my prison ... Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life - the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving.

What is pain to a man? A privilege!

You never know ... that's what makes life interesting.

It is bad manners to say that you will piss on anyone. Very bad. It is bad manners and very stupid to say that you will piss on anyone when you are unarmed. It is very bad manners and even more stupid to say that you will piss on anyone when you are unarmed, powerless, and not prepared to allow your friends and family or whomever to perish first.

Yes. My ship'll be like her, he promised himself. She'll be trim and miniature and perfect like a Yoshitomo blade, and that's the best in the world, and just as dangerous. Next year she'll take a prize twenty times her own weight, like Mariko did at Osaka, ans she'll rip the enemy out of Asia.

It's good for a man to get drunk once in a while. It releases all the evil spirits.

Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san. Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal. We have no word for 'love' as I understand you to mean it. Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need.