One chance is all you need.

Awards become corroded. Friends gather no dust.

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.

Youth on horseback has passed. The world is at peace and white hairs multiply. With what remains of life that heaven permits, how can I not enjoy it?

-- The 'One-Eyed Dragon' of northern Japan who carved

人の意見を聞いてから出る知恵は、本当の知恵ではない。

-- The peasant who became ruler of all Japan

児孫のために美田を買わず。

-- The charismatic giant who led Japan's Meiji Restoration through force of personality and moral authority

Let the world say what it will about me. Only I know what I must do.

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

No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.

-- Britain's greatest naval hero

Writing is the work above all other work.

-- Ichiyo Higuchi