💬 Quotes

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication of the spirit. He who needs little is invincible, for nothing can be taken from him that he truly values."

"Compassion without strength is merely sentimentality; strength without compassion is tyranny. True Bushido demands the delicate balance of both."

"Mastery over others is a temporary illusion; mastery over oneself is the only conquest that endures across eternity."

"In the face of chaos, the mind of the warrior must remain as still and reflective as a mountain lake, mirroring the truth without distortion."

"The Lord brought me to see what I was, and what all my comforts were, that I had little value for them when I enjoyed them, but now how desirable would even a crumb of bread be for me."

"I have been in the midst of those rough hounds, upon the mountains, whither he had threatened to carry me. But none of them stirred my tongue, no, not a dog moved his tongue."

"O the wonderful power of God that I should be able to sit down in such a desolate place; and that none of them should hurt me."

"Before I knew what captivity was, I was wont to say, it would be easy for more than such a loss, what were all our English and American losses, but if I were once stripped of my children, and kin, and all, and should have to go among the heathen, I should die."

"And now I must go with them, taking along with me my wounded child, whom I was forced to carry in my arms, mourning over my dead and dying child."

"I hope I can truly say in some measure, It is good for me that I have been afflicted. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep thy word."

"Je forme une entreprise qui n'eut jamais d'exemple, et dont l'exécution n'aura point d'imitateur. Je veux montrer à mes semblables un homme dans toute la vérité de la nature; et cet homme, ce sera moi."

"J'étais né pour la tendresse, et je suis devenu sombre et taciturne, ou plutôt j'ai nourri dans mon cœur un fiel amer en me voyant incompris et rejeté."

"L'impulsion de la seule nature est toujours droite; il n'y a point de perversité originelle dans le cœur humain, dont on ne puisse dire comment et par où elle y est entrée."

"J'ai dit la vérité؛ que ceux qui m'ont succédé la disent aussi bien que moi, et que l'on maudisse ce misérable autant qu'il le méritera."

"Le malheur voulut que je prisse goût à la lecture, et mon père m'y encouragea moins pour m'instruire que pour me distraire; mais nous finîmes par y passer les nuits entières."

"Rien n'est si beau, si vrai, si grand que la nature. Quand on l'étudie, on oublie tous les maux de la vie."

"I do fear that the national love of trade is wearing itself out beyond all hope of redemption, and that the national vanity and swagger are unspeakably offensive."

"The institution of slavery is a hideous blot, an foul stigma, which must make every American blush, while he is doomed to hear it mentioned."

"Man is a creature of habit, and loath to change even a bad custom for a better one, if it entails any trouble upon him."

"They are a busy, genteel, clever people; but they are restless, curious, and-as yet-imperfectly developed in many respects."