Yamamoto Tsunetomo Quotes
What is called generosity is really compassion. In the Shin'ei it is written "Seen from the eye of compassion, there is noone to be disliked. One who has sinned is to be pitied all the more." There is no limit to the breadth and depth of ones heart. There is room enough for all. That we still worship the sages of the three ancient kingdoms is because their compassion reaches us yet today.
Yamamoto, Tsunetomo. Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai. Translated by William Scott Wilson, Kodansha International, 1979, p. 54.
In his famous Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln also used the “malice” and “charity” coupling in the reverse order. There is no evidence that Lincoln had ever seen the Adams letter.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Buddhist monastic name Yamamoto Jōchō (June 11, 1659 – November 30, 1719), was a samurai of the Saga Domain in Hizen Province under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. He became a Zen Buddhist priest and relayed his experiences, memories, lessons, ideas, and aphorisms to the samurai Tashiro Tsuramoto , who compiled them under the title Hagakure.
