“Even if one’s head were to be suddenly cut off, he should still be able to do one more action.”
“A man exists for a generation, but his name lasts to the end of time.”
“There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment.”
“To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not.”
“If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do.”
“Matters of great concern should be treated lightly. Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.”
“The Way of the Samurai is found in death.”
“Time has a way of demonstrating: the most stubborn are the most intelligent.”
“I do not like poems that resemble hay compressed into a geometrically perfect cube.”
“In poetry and literature, I am among those who believe that too much is indispensable.”
“I love sport because I love life, and sport is one of the basic joys of life.”
“Why is it that right-wing bastards stand shoulder to shoulder, while liberals fall out among themselves?”
“Give me a mystery—just a plain and simple one.”
“The hell with it. Who never knew the price of happiness will not be happy.”
“In any man who dies there dies with him his first snow and kiss and fight.”
“No people are uninteresting. Their fate is like the chronicle of planets.”
“Over Babiy Yar there are no memorials.”
“A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else can be only a footnote.”
“It is not difficult to nourish admirable thoughts when the stars are present.”
“All would be transformed if we had the courage to be what we are.”