Clouds above the Hill | reading

Akiyama Yoshifuru

A nation can only be truly independent when every individual within it is independent.
A man need only accomplish one thing in his life.
There are all kinds of people in this world. One has no choice but to smile and swallow them whole.
In one’s youth, the question is what one will do; in old age, the question is what one has done.
One’s personal life should be simple and clear.
Reading the opinions of others will only do you harm if you have no opinions of your own.
Only a fool relies on luck from the very start.
Once a real man becomes beholden to someone for money, his spirit shrinks by that much and he will live with a crease in his soul for the rest of his life.
If it’s not for you, leave at once. One must select a setting where one’s own talent can be brought to fruition.
To hold forth without even listening to the essence of the question—that is the habit of politicians and scholars.
- To hold forth without even listening to the essence of the question—that is the habit of politicians and scholars. But soldiers are different. Our work is to deal with an enemy. Therefore, a soldier must answer only after clarifying the enemy’s true intentions, their feelings, and what they seek from us. Unless you cultivate such a habit in daily life, when you face the battlefield, you will become a prisoner of generalities or fall into self-righteousness—and you will lose.
The essential duty of a staff officer is to be smooth and flexible, acting as oil between the upper and lower ranks. He must absolutely never seek personal fame.
I focus all my thoughts on one thing: how to win. That single point is my entire life. Everything else is a distraction, and if I dwell on or involve myself in such distractions, my judgment will be clouded and disturbed to that same extent.
If you wish to become great, you must rid yourself of all wicked thoughts. Such thoughts only breed selfish desires. And where there is selfish desire, one loses sight of the larger picture. To purge all wicked thoughts is the very secret to achieving greatness.
Drinking sake and talking of war has been called the lowest of the low since ancient times. Matters of war, which concern the very survival of the state, are not to be trifled with over drinks.
Marrying and starting a family only serves to weaken a man’s resolve.
- A young man’s greatest enemy is the home. Once you have a family, your spirit of inquiry will inevitably decline.
A true man of character rejects all forms of luxury. If you need to tie something, a piece of rope will do.
A man’s looks—whether handsome or plain—mean absolutely nothing.

Akiyama Saneyuki

Read voraciously, for books are but tools.
The principles of war must be mastered through one’s own intuition; they cannot be taught by the spoken or written word of predecessors.
It is about establishing your own principles. Only the principles you have established yourself are truly applicable, and merely learning from others is useless.
The method for discovering the essence lies in observing, listening to, and investigating every pattern from the past.
The odds of victory are barely fifty-fifty. It is the duty of a commander to push that to sixty-forty through firm conviction and decisive action.
An exam is the same as a battle. And a battle requires tactics. Tactics are something liberated from morality; there is no such thing as ‘playing foul’ or being ‘cowardly’.
Whether a thing can be done or not depends not on one’s intelligence, but on one’s character.
The establishment of a clear objective and the flawless method of execution—these are the work of the intellect. But to carry them out through fire and water is not the work of the intellect; it is the work of character. One must forge such a character in daily life.
True learning consists of breaking down the knowledge you have acquired, reassembling it yourself, and establishing your own principles. Only those principles you have built for yourself can be put to practical use; what you simply learn from others is of little value.
A pure realist in politics is no more than a second-rate politician—hardly a statesman at all, but merely a merchant. It is the ideals a politician holds that determine the quality of his character. Yet, since politics cannot exist apart from reality, an individual for whom ideals weigh too heavily is likely to end up as a mere dreamer, a poet, or even a hysterical fanatic.
Let us cast away our bows and arrows.

Tenken Manroku

Meticulous anxiety is the essential faculty for planning, while a calm and detached mind is the driving force for execution.
Most men, upon taking a wife and children, thrust one foot into the grave and become half-dead; their enterprising spirit withers, and they begin their retreat.
Many understand the economy of money; few understand the economy of time.
No matter how skilled the hand, it will lose if it lacks strength. No matter how ingenious the tactics, one cannot win if the force is too small.
One who loves only his own person, his family, or his village lacks sufficient enlightenment. Yet, one who claims to love the entire world or the universe has gone too far in his enlightenment.
In all matters of life, one must master the interplay of the false and the true, and adapt to changing circumstances. Only by appropriately matching truth and falsehood to the moment can an undertaking be accomplished.
Though our individual lives are not even one-ten-thousandth of the life of the Empire, if we indulge in a life of ease, the life of the Empire will be in peril.
Though success or failure may lie with Heaven, do not speak of Heaven until you have exhausted every human effort.
There are times when one achieves the objective despite a defeat, and times when one fails the objective despite a victory. True victory lies solely in the achievement of the objective.
Unless you constantly polish your wisdom in ordinary times to unlock the treasury of Heaven, you will be forced to leave success or failure to mere fate when a crisis arises.
To pray to the gods only in times of bitterness is an unreasonable request.
Those who complain about the quality of their instructors or the merits of their books have no hope of enlightenment.
Those who do not possess the spark of self-enlightenment and self-motivation will fail to execute, no matter how much they are taught.
A bystander sees eight moves ahead—that is their strength. But once burdened with responsibility, most people lose that vision. Regardless of responsibility, one must remain an observer at heart. This is possible only through a calm and detached mind.
To attain a calm and detached mind, one must cultivate oneself in both stillness and action, clearing away the clouds of human desire to reach the profound realm of selflessness. The study of military tactics must go hand in hand with the tempering of one’s spirit.
In times of peace, never forget the possibility of chaos. Be prepared, for the world is always on the brink of disorder.
If you forget the cold and become lightheaded with the warmth as soon as March arrives, your preparations for the next winter’s chill will be unreliable.
To forget the searing heat once the tea has passed the throat is a base emotion of the common crowd.

Masaoka Shiki

Don’t waste your time in idle play; read your books instead. Reading books is a pursuit that requires very little money.
You must choose your friends wisely.
It was not merely courage, but a far greater, fiercer, and more profound intensity of spirit—a grand, valiant heart—that seemed to fuel their daily steps.
There are many scales by which to measure human greatness, but the greatest is the person who does the most work for the smallest reward. A person who does ten parts of work for one part of reward is greater than someone who does a hundred parts of work for a hundred parts of reward.
The world barely keeps out the cold by wrapping itself in the robes of superstition. Truth—the reality of things—is a cold and shivering thing.
If you know the other party, but they do not know who you are, then showing them courtesy or respect is utterly futile.
Even if one’s words are common or vulgar, how noble they would be if the heart behind them were truly elevated.
When a student thinks that the height of poverty is to have not a single penny, he finds that being utterly penniless actually brings a strange peace to the soul and a sense of ease.
If your field of vision is too narrow, you will fail to realize that your own train is moving and instead feel as if it is the train next to you that has begun to move.
Reading, working, taking a nap—it seems that whatever one intimately observes and experiences during childhood naturally becomes a habit. This is why home education is of such great importance.
- Education within the home is administered unconsciously; even in matters where parents have no intention of teaching, children are often keenly observing and mimicking their parents’ every move.

Other

The life of one who is deeply committed to their work is a constant series of sharper peaks and deeper valleys than the lives of ordinary people.
What defines a good dictator? First, he must possess a strong will and character. Next, he requires noble emotions and ideals, followed by wisdom, education, and training. However, the requirements for wisdom and education are not particularly worth mentioning in comparison to the others.
Many elderly people remain calm and unperturbed, but this is nothing more than a loss of the spiritual flexibility required to be moved. It is not dignity; it is simply the hardening of the mind.