Ihara Saikaku Quotes

In life it is training rather than birth which counts.

Like ice beneath the sun's rays - to such poverty did he fall...his fortune melted to water.

Ancient simplicity is gone...the people of today are satisfied with nothing but finery.

No longer can a young woman feel at ease; for she is ever concerned with the impression that she may be making on others.

To make a fortune some assistance from fate is essential. Ability alone is insufficient.

The first consideration for all, throughout life, is the earning of a living.

Take care! Kingdoms are destroyed by bandits, houses by rats, and widows by suitors.

If we live by subhuman means we might as well never have had the good fortune to be born human.

If making money is a slow process, losing it is quickly done.

To think twice in every matter and follow the lead of others is no way to make money.

Though mothers and fathers give us life, it is money alone which preserves it.

Harshness is for the good of a boy, soft-heartedness will ruin him.

Men take their misfortunes to heart and keep them there.

There is always something to upset the most careful of human calculations.

When you send a clerk on business to a distant province, a man of rigid morals is not your best choice.