“No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it.”

Farewell, my old fan. / Having scribbled on it, / What could I do but tear it / At the end of summer?

Awakened at midnight by the sound of the water jar cracking from the ice.

Old pond, leap-splash – a frog.

A weathered skeleton in windy fields of memory, piercing like a knife.

Every moment of life is the last, every poem is a death poem.

Come, butterfly It’s late- We’ve miles to go together.

How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God.

April’s air stirs in Willow-leaves, a butterfly Floats and balances.

There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

I hope to have gathered To repay your kindness The willow leaves Scattered in the garden.

A flute with no holes is not a flute.

Go to the object. Leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Do not impose yourself on the object. Become one with the object. Plunge deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there.

Learn how to listen as things speak for themselves.

A thicket of summer grass / Is all that remains / Of the dreams of ancient warriors.

For this lovely bowl let us arrange these flowers since there is no rice.

Old dark sleepy pool… Quick unexpected frog Goes plop! Watersplash!

The price of life is effort; the acme of effort is an accomplishment; the reward of accomplishment is joy.

The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set.

In the space of seven years I have succeeded in accomplishing a great work and uniting the whole world in one Empire.

He who would accomplish little need sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much. He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.

I had considered how the things that never happen, are often as much realities to us, in their effects, as those that are accomplished.

When you put good will out there, it’s amazing what can be accomplished.

Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.

If you set out to be liked, you will accomplish nothing.