Yamamoto Tsunetomo Quotes on Time
Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure offers a practical wisdom about time and timing, and the quotes gathered here present it. Its best-known counsel pairs two maxims, that great matters should be treated lightly and small matters seriously, meaning that important decisions, deliberated well in advance, can be acted on swiftly and calmly when the moment comes. Tsunetomo recognised that people differ in their natural relation to time, some quick to grasp a matter and others needing to withdraw and take time to think things over. He also urged a certain humility before the past, advising that affairs long gone, about which opinions conflict and much is unclear, are better regarded as unknowable. Drawn from the Hagakure, these passages present time as something to be met through foresight, preparation, and decisive action.
Quotes
-
“According to their nature, there are both people who have quick intelligence, and those who must withdraw and take time to think things over.”
Wikiquote -
“Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige's wall there was this one: "Matters of great concern should be treated lightly." Master lttei commented, "Matters of small concern should be treated seriously." Among one's affairs there should not be more than two or three matters of what one could call great concern. If these are deliberated upon during ordinary times, they can be understood. Thinking about things previously and then handling them lightly when the time comes is what this is all about.”
Wikiquote -
“The way of revenge lies in simply forcing one's way into a place and being cut down. There is no shame in this. By thinking that you must complete the job you will run out of time. By considering things like how many men the enemy has, time piles up; in the end you will give up. No matter if the enemy has thousands of men, there is fulfillment in simply standing them off and being determined to cut them all down, starting from one end. You will finish the greater part of it.”
Wikiquote -
“Concerning the night assault of Lord Asano's ronin, the fact that they did not commit seppuku at the Sengakuji was an error, for there was a long delay between the time their lord was struck down and the time when they struck down the enemy. If Lord Kira had died of illness within that period, it would have been extremely regrettable.”
Commentary on the tale of The Forty-Seven Samurai (or the "Forty-seven Ronin ", or Akō Rōshi , the Akō "vendetta"), emphasizing his view that Bushido demands prompt action, and not delay, or concern about success and failure. Variant: "What if, nine months after Asano's death, Kira had died of an illness? -
“There is not a man who does not get senile by the time he reaches sixty. And when one thinks that he will not be senile, he is already so.”
Hagakure(c. 1716) -
“In carefully scrutinizing the affairs of the past, we find that there are many different opinions about them, and that there are some things that are quite unclear. It is better to regard such things as unknowable.”
Hagakure(c. 1716)