Japan & the Japanese
1. “The Japanese were born followers; they had been bred to follow with blind obedience the dictates of the shōgun even unto death.” (Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja)
Entrance to Osaka Castle, Japan
2. “Symbols abounded in Japan, acquiring their own potency. For the Japanese these were perhaps no more powerful symbols that the cherry blossom. It stood variously for renewal, purification, love and ineffable, timeless beauty: basic concepts to the Japanese spirit.” (Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja)
3. “Why were so many haiku sorrowful?” (Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja)
4. “Lieutenant, killing has been a high art in Japan for almost two thousand years.” (Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja)
5. “… I guess it’s true what they say about Westerners, they’re too thickheaded ever to be educated.” (Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja)
6. “The Japanese are much like the Westerners now; they are great mimics.” (Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja)
7. “In Japan there is what we call the nobility of failure. Many of our greatest heroes failed in their ultimate objectives. But their vision was heroic, as were their subsequent actions. In the West, you revere only the victorious. That’s a pity, don’t you think?” (Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja)
Jealousy
8. “Or can there be such a thing in this world as a man who is jealous of the woman who loves him, precisely because of her love?…” (Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask)
Jews
9. “The Jew is the universal scapegoat. This does not happen without reason, and it is not the old superstition about ‘Christ-killers’ that makes them distrusted.” (Katherine Kressmann Taylor, Address Unknown)
Jobs
10. “It’s the job that’s never started that takes longest to finish.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring)
