If you do not know you may fall halfway through your work, you will not fall halfway through.

I shall give Japan a good laundering.

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

If the cuckoo will not sing, kill it.

-- The revolutionary warlord who dismantled feudal Japan's medieval order and launched the country toward unification

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

I am not afraid; God is with me.

-- The peasant girl who reversed France's fortunes in the Hundred Years' War and was burned at the stake at age nineteen

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

-- Mark Twain