Jobs
1. “They perform one of our society’s few worthwhile services. The robbing of a hot dog vendor is a symbolic act. The theft is not prompted by avarice but rather by a desire to belittle the vendor.” (John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces)
“Samurai” at Azuchi Momoyama Bunka Mura (Edo Wonderland) in Ise Province, Japan
Kamikaze
2. “If only we might fall
Like cherry blossom in the spring –
So pure and radiant!”
(Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja)
Katana
3. “The katana should be drawn only for combat. It’s sacred. Given in the manhood ceremony, christened with its own name, it is the heart and soul of the samurai.” (Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja)
Killing
4. “I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars. Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky, he thought.” (Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea)
5. “Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way.” (Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea)
Kings
6. “The hands of the king are the hand of a healer.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King)
7. “But great Kings take what is their right.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings – Appendix)
Knowledge
8. “Wanting to know so hard that it aches inside you, that’s a gift.” (P.S. Somtow, Jasmine Nights)
9. “There is too much that man does not know. And what man does not know, that is the province of the gods.” (Michael Crichton, The 13th Warrior)
10. “Well, you don’t know everything in the world, do you?” (Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage)
