Ishikawa Takuboku Quotes

Just because you read it in a magazine,
Or see it on a TV screen
Don't make it factual.

Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.

A man or woman is seldom happy unless he or she is sustaining him or herself and making a contribution to others.

During my recovery, I gave myself self-love and self-care, and I embraced being curvier. I accepted what my body wanted to be, To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller. I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it. I think it’s real.

[C]ollaboration between... divergent systems is possible... only as long as both are stable. ...International security is ...based upon the internal political and social security of each of the Great Powers.

O degli uomini inferma e instabil mente!
Come siàn presti a variar disegno!
Tutti i pensier mutamo facilmente,
Più quei che nascon d’amoroso sdegno.

I wanted just a song to sing, and there came a certain point where I couldn't sing anything. So I had to write what I wanted to sing 'cos nobody else was writing what I wanted to sing.

As a child, I saw Elvis Presley. So that was something, I mean he was this person with a guitar and that was the image I wanted to be. I wanted to be a musician so I got my first guitar when I was thirteen years old, and I felt, oh man, now that I have the guitar, I got the music. But it started from that....

You can do so much in ten minutes’ time. Ten minutes, once gone, are gone for good. Divide your life into 10-minute units and sacrifice as few of them as possible in meaningless activity.

Just because we cannot afford human insulin, we are having to use animal insulin, so let me do something about it

His Biographer remarked: Of course, ‘Sir, you believe in excellence.' JRD Tata) retorted sharply, 'Not excellence. Perfection. You aim for perfection, you will attain excellence. If you aim for excellence, you will go lower.

Who are you to judge the life I live?
I know that I'm not perfect and that I don't claim to be,
so before you point your fingers make sure your hands are clean.

I like to ask people to think about the courage it takes for someone experiencing homelessness to knock on the door, asking for service,” Murray continued. “It’s very hard. It’s very vulnerable.

Language completes the existence of the world and makes it "usable" for humans.

Wickets are like wives - you never know which way they will turn!

The head tumbles between the legs
like a wooden ball
you fall, dark night
in the eyes,
the door a span away
inaccessible
you are on your knees
...