Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

One gun that hits with every shot can match a hundred guns that hit one in a hundred.

-- The admiral who destroyed the Russian Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima

Governance must be clean and transparent.

-- The ruthlessly effective architect of modern Japan who built the Meiji state's institutions while his more charismatic peers took the glory

History is a chain of wills attempting to transmit something.

-- Yasushi Inoue

Writing is the work above all other work.

-- Ichiyo Higuchi

Within the motive for crime lies society's contradiction.

-- Seicho Matsumoto

A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

-- Thomas Mann