Kakuz C5 8d Okakura Quotes

Asiatic youths are flocking to Western colleges for the equipment of modern education. Our insight does not penetrate your culture deeply, but at least we are willing to learn. Some of my compatriots have adopted too much of your customs and too much of your etiquette, in the delusion that the acquisition of stiff collars and tall silk hats comprised the attainment of your civilisation. Pathetic and deplorable as such affectations are, they evince our willingness to approach the West on our knees. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

In my young days I praised the master whose pictures I liked, but as my judgment matured I praised myself for liking what the masters had chosen to have me like. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still. ~ David Foster Wallace

From a human point of view, out bodily existence is a fairytale. At any rate, to the inhabitants of the human world, 'heaven' and 'the next world' are both nothing but fables. ~ CLAMP

Say, sis... Time is flowing slowly, but it's flowing. ~ Masashi Kishimoto

We have to get used to the idea that at the most important crossroads in our life there are no signs. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

In art the Present is the eternal. ~ Kakuzo Okakura

The hardest for man is lie to himself between 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning. ~ Stephen King

Give me strength to forgive. Because he who forgives is the greatest. And I know I cannot forget. ~ Mesa Selimovic

What dire consequences to humanity lie in the contemptuous ignoring of Eastern problems! ~ Okakura Kakuzo

One master defines Zen as the art of feeling the polar star in the southern sky. Truth can be reached only through the comprehension of opposites. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

Everyone has to build anew his sky of hope and peace. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

Cares melt when you kneel in your garden. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

Taoism was an active power during the Shin dynasty, that epoch of Chinese unification from which we derive the name China. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

Theories are patterns without value. What counts is action. ~ Constantin Brancusi

People or philosophers keep saying that our fundamental objective in life is to be happy! This is wrong! Our fundamental objective in life is to exist, either happy or unhappy! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

To be able to see a magic, you need to have a mind that can detect that magic! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Some historians subsequently said that the twentieth century actually started in 1914, when war broke out, because it was first war in history in which so many countries took part, in which so many people died and in which airships and airplanes flew and bombarded the rear and towns and civilians, and submarines sunk ships and artillery could lob shells ten or twelve kilometers. And the Germans invented gas and the English invented tanks and scientists discovered isotopes and general theory of relativity, according to which nothing was metaphysical, but relative.And when Senegalese fusiliers first saw an airplane they thought it was a tame bird and one of the Senegalese soldiers cut a lump of flesh from a dead horse and threw it as far as he could in order to lure it away. And airships and airplanes flew through the sky and the horses were terribly frightened. And writers and poets endeavored to find new ways of expressing it best and in 1916 they invented Dadaism because everything seemed crazy to them. And in Russia they invented a revolution. And the soldiers wore around their neck or wrist a tag with their name and the number of their regiment to indicate who was who, and where to send a telegram of condolences, but if the explosion tore off their head or arm and the tag was lost, the military command would announce that they were unknown soldiers, and in most capital cities they instituted an eternal flame lest they be forgotten, because fire preserves the memory of some ~ Patrik Ouředník

The road up and the road down is one and the same.
(ὁδὸς ἄνω κάτω μία καὶ ὡυτή)
- Fragment 60 ~ Heraclitus

A collector is anxious to acquire specimens to illustrate a period or a school, and forgets that a single masterpiece can teach us more than any number of the mediocre products of a given period or school. We classify too much and enjoy too little. The sacrifice of the aesthetic to the so-called scientific method of exhibition has been the bane of many museums. ~ Kakuzo Okakura

Whereever you go we will share the same sky ~ Y.Odabasi

The canvas upon which the artist paints is the spectator's mind. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

A man without tea in him is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

Shrine after shrine has crumbled before our eyes; but one altar if forever preserved, that whereon we burn incense to the supreme idol,-ourselves. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

The greatest pleasure he knew was to do a good action by stealth ~ Okakura Kakuzo

The idea that everyone should have a house of his own is based on an ancient custom of the Japanese race, Shinto superstition ordaining that every dwelling should be evacuated on the death of its chief occupant. ~ Kakuzo Okakura

People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

The tea-masters held that real appreciation of art is only possible to those who make of it a living influence. Thus they sought to regulate their daily life by the high standard of refinement which obtained in the tea-room. In all circumstances serenity of mind should be maintained, and conversation should be conducted as never to mar the harmony of the surroundings. The cut and color of the dress, the poise of the body, and the manner of walking could all be made expressions of artistic personality. These were matters not to be lightly ignored, for until one has made himself beautiful he has no right to approach beauty. Thus the tea-master strove to be something more than the artist, - art itself. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

We are ever brutal to those who love and serve us in silence, but the time may come when, for our cruelty, we shall be deserted by these best friends of ours. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

You may believe whatever you want; but the most important thing is to update your belief with the truth, with the science! Your dearest belief might be the biggest buncombe ever! Don't be sad! Continue your road with the new truth! Everything changes! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Professionalism is like love: it is made up of the constant flow of little bits of proof that testify to devotion and care. Everything else is pretension or incompetence. ~ Tomislav Sola

Yet we allow our historical sympathy to override our aesthetic discrimination. We offer flowers of approbation when the artist is safely laid in his grave. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

The name of the artist is more important to them than the quality of the work ... People criticize a picture by their ear ~ Okakura Kakuzo

Friends are flowers in life's garden. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

Modern ideograph Cha was coined, evidently a corruption of the classic Tou. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

For Teaism is the art of concealing beauty that you may discover it, of suggesting what you dare not reveal. It is the noble secret of laughing at yourself, calmly yet thoroughly, and is thus humour itself,
the smile of philosophy. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

We listen to the unspoken, we gaze upon the unseen. Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea ~ Douglas Preston

But when we consider how small after all the cup of human enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity, we shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea-cup. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

For instance, in one play the palace of Lord Hosokawa, in which was preserved the celebrated painting of Dharuma by Sesson, suddenly takes fire through the negligence of the samurai in charge. Resolved at all hazards to rescue the precious painting, he rushes into the burning building and seizes the kakemono, only to find all means of exit cut off by the flames. Thinking only of the picture, he slashes open his body with his sword, wraps his torn sleeve about the Sesson and plunges it into the gaping wound. The fire is at last extinguished. Among the smoking embers is found a half- consumed corpse, within which reposes the treasure uninjured by the fire. Horrible as such tales are, they illustrate the great value that we set upon a masterpiece, as well as the devotion of a trusted samurai. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

One is reminded in this connection of a story concerning Kobori-Enshiu. Enshiu was complimented by his disciples on the admirable taste he had displayed in the choice of his [art] collection. Said they, "Each piece is such that no one could help admiring. It shows that you had better taste than had Rikiu, for his collection could only be appreciated by one beholder in a thousand." Sorrowfully Enshiu replied: "This only proves how commonplace I am. The great Rikiu dared to love only those objects which personally appealed to him, whereas I unconsciously cater to the taste of the majority. Verily, Rikiu was one in a thousand among tea-masters. ~ Kakuzo Okakura

One can even buy a so-called Religion,
which is really but common morality sanctified with flowers and music. Rob the Church of her accessories and what remains behind? ~ Okakura Kakuzo

Rikiu was watching his son Shoan as he swept and
watered the garden path. "Not clean enough," said Rikiu, when Shoan had finished his task, and bade him try again. After a weary hour the son turned to Rikiu: "Father, there is nothing more to be done. The steps have been washed for the third time, the stone lanterns and the trees are well sprinkled with water, moss and lichens are shining with a fresh verdure; not a twig, not a leaf have I left on the ground."
"Young fool," chided the tea-master, "that is not the way a garden path should be swept." Saying this, Rikiu stepped into the garden, shook a tree and scattered over the garden gold and crimson leaves, scraps of the brocade of autumn! ~ Kakuzo Okakura

Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

The ancient sages never put their teachings in systematic form. They spoke in paradoxes, for they were afraid of uttering half-truths. They began by talking like fools and ended up making their hearers wise. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

The Taoist and Zen conception of perfection ... the dynamic nature of their philosophy laid more stress upon the process through which perfection was sought than upon perfection itself. True beauty could be discovered only by one who mentally completed the incomplete. The virility of life and art lay in its possibilities for growth. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

One altar forever is preserved, that whereon we burn incense to the supreme idol,
ourselves, our god is great, and money is his Prophet! We devastate nature in order to make sacrifice to him; we boast that we have conquered Matter and forget that it is matter that has forever enslaved us. ~ Okakura Kakuzo