Hiroshi Yoshida Quotes

One morning after a beautiful fall of snow, I had reason to write a letter to an acquaintance, but I omitted to make any mention of the snow. I was delighted when she responded, 'Do you expect me to pay any attention to the words of someone so perverse that he fails to enquire how I find this snowy landscape? What deplorable insensitivity! ~ Yoshida Kenko

If I lived, she died, and I'd never find someone like her again. If she lived, I would have to die. No matter how many times I ran it through my head, there didn't seem to be another way out. One of us had to die and Rita didn't want to talk it through. She was going to let our skill decide. ~ Hiroshi Sakurazaka

I don't know whether the future or 2018 exists or not, but if it exists, I'm offering a show to a museum in Australia titled "Time Reversed." Time is going backwards. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

When I consider the state of things in our fief, I find that those who hold positions and receive official stipends are incapable of the utmost in loyalty and patriotic service. Loyalty of the usual sort-perhaps, but if it is true loyalty and service you seek, then you must abandon this fief and plan a grass-roots uprising. ~ Yoshida Shoin

It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met. ~ Yoshida Kenko

The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under the lamp, a book spread out before you, and to make friends with people of a distant past you have never known. ~ Yoshida Kenko

This is kaiju!" Yojiro barked. "When did they ever give a damn about adhering to science! ~ Hiroshi Yamamoto

And besides, thought Yoshida, If it was all right for God to test man, why was it wrong for man to test God? ~ Haruki Murakami

The longer you live, the greater your share of shame. ~ Yoshida Kenko

and all who trained, slept, and shat within its walls. ~ Hiroshi Sakurazaka

If you rely neither on yourself nor on others, you will rejoice when things go well, and not be aggrieved when they don't. ~ Yoshida Kenko

It is hard for one who has not had a similar experience to imagine the terror that still gripped Taeko and Mrs. Tamaki and Hiroshi, so intense a terror that afterwards it seemed almost funny. ~ Junichiro Tanizaki

There is nothing firm or stable in a life spent between larking about together and quarrelling, exuberant one moment, aggrieved and resentful the next. You are forever pondering pros and cons, endlessly absorbed in questions of gain and loss. And on top of delusion comes drunkenness, and in that drunkenness you dream. ~ Yoshida Kenko

People have been reading photography as a true document, at the same time they are now getting suspicious. I am basically an honest person, so I let the camera capture whatever it captures whether you believe it or not is up to you; it's not my responsibility, blame my camera, not me. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

Mystery of mysteries, water and air are right there before us in the sea. Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home; I embark on a voyage of seeing. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

I feel that I'm in a very interesting position, where I'm standing back to look at this change, at this moment in history of human beings. If the end of the civilization comes before the end of my life, that's lucky! I want to witness how this big story of humans ends. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

It was tough coming to the realization that I wasn't interested in anything, though realizing it didn't mean I could then immediately find something to engage my interest. I tried to think of something. Maybe I could study a foreign language or study abroad in Rome or somewhere? Or, more realistically, grab some guy I knew and have a destination wedding abroad. But everything I could think of was based on how envious it would make people, not on any genuine interest I might have. ~ Shuichi Yoshida

There is nothing finer than to be alone with nothing to distract you. ~ Yoshida Kenko

Is there any of the usual social occasions which it is not difficult to avoid? But if you decide that you cannot very well ignore your worldly obligations, and that you will therefore carry them out properly, the demands on your time will multiply, bringing physical hardship and mental tension; in the end, you will spend your whole life pointlessly entangled in petty obligations.
'The day is ending, the way is long; my life already begins to stumble on its journey.' The time has come to abandon all ties. I shall not keep promises, nor consider decorum. Let anyone who cannot understand my feelings feel free to call me mad, let him think I am out of my senses, that I am devoid of human warmth. Abuse will not bother me; I shall not listen if praised. ~ Yoshida Kenko

there were only three kinds of battle to begin with: fucked up, seriously fucked up, and fucked up beyond all recognition. No use panicking about it. ~ Hiroshi Sakurazaka

However fake the subject, once photographed, it's as good as real. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

We will not fail your expectations of us as a new nation dedicated to peace, democracy, and freedom. ~ Shigeru Yoshida

I know faith. Therefore, I must embrace the crown of thorns. I seek the truth. Therefore, I must dare to disobey God. ~ Sunao Yoshida

Leave undone whatever you hesitate to do. ~ Kenko Yoshida

I have no policy for my collection. For example, there's a bunch of meteorite [on the windowsill in my studio]. I touch it and I feel the energy from the universe. I have a 1/1,000th of a fragment of stone-age tools and pottery and debris. I can learn many things from my collection. Actually, the 1,000 Buddha, I wanted to buy it, but it's a National Treasure, so I couldn't. If you cannot buy it, just photograph it! ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

Your mother must have been disappointed when the abortion only killed your conscience. ~ Hiroshi Sakurazaka

People believe in life after death because they are afraid of dying... But I do not believe in life after death BECAUSE I am afraid of dying. ~ Hiroshi Yamamoto

I was in the valley of the shadow of death, no two fucking ways about it, but I had Rita at my side. ~ Hiroshi Sakurazaka

They ate earth and shat out poison, leaving behind a lifeless wasteland. The alien intelligence that had created them had mastered space travel and learned to send information through time. Now they were taking our world and turning it into a facsimile of their own, every last tree, flower, insect, animal, and human be damned. ~ Hiroshi Sakurazaka

There are no heroes in our world. No clear-cut evil either. Everyone involved insists that they're the righteous ones. ~ Hiroshi Yamamoto

The armored infantry was Santa Claus, the battle was out Christmas. What else for the elves to do on Christmas Eve but to let their hair down and drink a a little eggnog. ~ Hiroshi Sakurazaka

We are determined that our nation shall cease to be a burden on other countries but shall contribute positively to world prosperity, while observing fully the fair trade practices in international commerce. ~ Shigeru Yoshida

One night I had an idea while I was at the movies: to photograph the film itself. I tried to imagine photographing an entire feature film with my camera. I could already picture the projection screen making itself visible as a white rectangle. In my imagination, this would appear as a glowing, white rectangle; it would come forward from the projection surface and illuminate the entire theater. This idea struck me as being very interesting, mysterious, and even religious. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

I'm inviting the spirits into my photography. It's an act of God. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

We need to have nature back in our atmosphere. There might be a turning point of going backward - within a few thousand years we are going back to the Stone Age! There are many scenarios [with] the robot technologies: Humans no longer need to walk; machines can produce products and food and everything. You might not be able to recognize what's false and what is real. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

Art and religion have the same origin. Art first, or religion first? Maybe consciousness first! Consciousness always comes with religious feeling and artistic identification. It's the same origin. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

All over the planet, nature is being transformed into 'un-nature' at breakneck speed ... My life is part of natural history. I long to know where that history came from and where it is going. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

I've never thought I wanted to quit in my research. I would always fail in experiments, which I did at least three times a day. ~ Hiroshi Amano

In all things, the beginning and end are the most engaging. Does the love of man and woman suggest only their embraces? No, the sorrow of lovers parted before they met, laments over promises betrayed, long lonely nights spent sleepless until dawn, pining thoughts for one in some far place, a woman left sighing over past love in her tumbledown abode - it is these, surely, that embody the romance of love. ~ Yoshida Kenko

Even those who have an air of being wise judge of others only, and do not know themselves. It cannot be in reason to know others and not to know oneself. Therefore one who knows himself may be said to be a man who has knowledge. Though our looks be unpleasing, we do not know it. We do not know that our skill is poor. We do not know that our station is lowly. We do not know that we grow old in years. We do not know that sickness attacks us. We do not know that death is near. We do not know that we have not attained the Way we follow. We do not know what evil is in our own persons, still less what calumny comes from without. ~ Yoshida Kenko

Life is one passage and then you keep moving into another state. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

Kazuko was worried about him, calling him a hikikomori, a self-imposed shut-in. ~ Shuichi Yoshida

But sometimes he's right. 'Nothing happens if you just dream,' he said. 'You need the motivation to make your dreams reality. ~ Hiroshi Yamamoto

It is a fine thing when a man who thoroughly understands a subject is unwilling to open his mouth. ~ Yoshida Kenko

When I saw this Broken Kilometer, it reminded me of these 1,000 Buddhas. That piece is 1,000 one-meter gold rods, and this is 1,000 pieces of gold gilded wooden sculpture. In terms of design, it's up to the space's character. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto

Though a man excels in everything, unless he has been a lover his life is lonely, and he may be likened to a jewelled cup which can contain no wine. ~ Yoshida Kenko

There is fear as to whether Japan, reduced to such a predicament, could ever manage to pay reparations to certain designated Allied Powers without shifting the burden upon the other Allied Powers. ~ Shigeru Yoshida