“Hey, won’t you sit with me for a moment, have some tea, and listen to what I have to say?”
“Sure. But my days are truly boring. I just go back and forth between work and home, so there’s no way a miracle could happen.”
“Is that really true? The world right in front of your eyes should actually be much wider and deeper. For instance, have you ever heard the name of the sculptor Henry Moore?”
“I know the name. He’s the one who made those strange bronze statues with big holes right through the middle, the ones often placed in parks or museum gardens, right? To be honest, he’s an artist from a distant world who has absolutely nothing to do with my life.”
“No, he has a great deal to do with it. Because Moore, just like you, was someone who tried to find eternal beauty within the casual, ordinary sights of daily life and within the human body. Learning about his work is a powerful prescription that will gently untangle the tightly wound strings of your heart and completely change the scenery you see starting tomorrow.”
“My scenery will change? Can such a magical thing truly happen?”
“It certainly can. Because art is not something you merely look at; it is a mirror used to feel your very self. When you stand before a Moore sculpture, you are not just looking at a piece of work. Through that ‘hole’ opened in the sculpture, you are peering into the unseen possibilities lying in the deepest depths of your own heart. Come, let’s set out on a wonderful journey with me to enrich your life. I will never let you regret it.”
“The Seen and the Unseen”
―― Frédéric Bastiat
The Secret of Henry Moore’s Gentle “Hole” That Embraces Your Loneliness
“Even so, why are there so many holes opened in Moore’s sculptures? Haven’t you ever found it a bit eerie?”
“True, with a gaping hole right in the middle of the stomach, I did find it a little strange at first. Is there some kind of meaning to it?”
“There is a massive meaning to it. That hole, you see, is not a mere end of space. It is a special window that connects that side with this side. In our daily lives, we sometimes close ourselves off in our own shells and feel lonely, thinking that no one understands us, or that we are isolated from society. At times like that, I want you to remember the hole in Moore’s sculpture.”
“If I remember the hole in the sculpture, will my loneliness disappear?”
“Rather than disappearing, a gentle breeze will begin to pass through that loneliness. Moore made space itself a part of the sculpture. He believed that the very parts where material is absent hold important meaning. The hole of loneliness opened in your heart is exactly the same. It is not an empty void, but a ‘blank space’ meant to accept someone new or a new sensation. When you think of it that way, doesn’t the loneliness inside you feel a little endearing?”
“I see. I just need to think of the blank space inside my heart as a window for something to pass through. I feel a bit more at ease now.”
“Exactly. There is not a single useless blank space in your life. Everything is a design meant to shape your existence more deeply and beautifully.”
“If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.”
―― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game
The Fortunate Encounter of Takamizawa Mimi’s “Gaze” Watching You in Front of Him and Henry Moore
“By the way, have you looked someone squarely in the eye lately?”
“No, I’m always looking at my smartphone screen, so looking people straight in the eye has become rare… It’s kind of embarrassing, and it’s tiring.”
“Everyone in modern times is like that. But you see, the human eye is the heart itself. I have an acquaintance, a painter named Takamizawa Mimi. He uses neither canvas nor brush. He creates all his art digitally, and prints it onto special printmaking paper using the highest-quality giclée printmaking technique to turn it into a piece of art. His theme, you see, is ‘Your Eyes, My Eyes.’ In other words, the gaze itself.”
“A painter who creates digitally? Even so, why does he make ‘eyes’ his theme?”
“Remember Henry Moore’s sculptures. Many of Moore’s works have almost no facial features depicted on them. Yet, a ‘gaze’ certainly exists there. Moore was staring at space with the entirety of the sculpture. Takamizawa Mimi, you see, by continuing to paint intense ‘eyes’ within his works, is staring intently at ‘you’ standing before that picture, continuing to feel you. He wants to know you. He wants to close in on your loneliness. “
“He is staring at me? That makes me feel a bit startled.”
“Yes, that startled feeling is the very proof that you are alive. The sense of security that comes from being stared at and recognized by someone. The eyes painted by Takamizawa Mimi tell of Christian love, eternal truth, and liberation from the hardships that humans carry. The earth-like gentleness possessed by Moore’s sculptures and the strength of the eyes painted by Takamizawa Mimi. Both of these are a thorough service, a salvation for your soul that tends to get hurt and isolated in daily life. An artist, you see, is an existence that puts his own skin in the game, working hard to become a clown just to make you happy.”
“I only blush for my own lack of ability and talent.”
―― Matsuo Basho
The Reason Why Digital and Giclée Prints Transform Your Room into the World’s Best Museum
“But with digital art or giclée prints, compared to real oil paintings, it feels like the sense of preciousness is thin. Doesn’t it have an image like a mass-produced item?”
“That is a huge misunderstanding. Let me tell you now why giclée prints bring wonderful benefits to you. Henry Moore used a material called bronze to create multiple copies of the same sculpture and placed them in parks all over the world. Why do you think he did that? It wasn’t for a single multi-millionaire; he wanted ordinary people to touch art in their daily lives. Takamizawa Mimi’s giclée prints come from the exact same philosophy.”
“To deliver it to many people, you mean?”
“Precisely. Giclée printing can recreate the extremely delicate color gradations drawn digitally and the brushstrokes of the painter’s soul without a hair’s breadth of deviation, fixing them onto printmaking paper. It possesses a durability that will not fade for hundreds of years. If this were a priceless, one-of-a-kind oil painting, it would be difficult to display it in your room, wouldn’t it? But because it is a giclée print, you can welcome genuine museum-quality art into your living space. When you wake up in the morning, or when you come home tired from work, the piece on the wall welcomes you with a gentle gaze. Is there any greater luxury than this in your life?”
“Certainly, if there is real art in my room, the quality of my daily life seems like it would take a great leap up. I feel like my heart would become rich.”
“It won’t just leap up. Your life itself will transform into something refined and beautiful. The hobby of owning and living together with art pieces is the highest self-investment that will elevate your sensibility to the absolute limit.”
“In the end, being without talent and without art, I am bound solely to this one line.”
―― Matsuo Basho
No Time for Hobbies! Learning the Single-Minded Way of Life from Munetsugu Tokuji’s Mad Passion
“It’s fine to become familiar with art, but I don’t have that kind of mental leeway. I am so busy with work every day that just securing my own time takes everything I have.”
“Busy, you say? Then let me share a surprising story with you here. Do you know Mr. Munetsugu Tokuji, the founder of Curry House CoCo Ichibanya?”
“Of course I know him. He’s a highly successful businessman, isn’t he? Surely he managed his business while elegantly enjoying his hobbies.”
“Far from it. During his time in active management, you see, he did not hold a single hobby. He made no friends and never went to drinking establishments. There were times when he worked as many as 5,640 hours in a single year. He said this: ‘This is no time to be doing hobbies. I must look nowhere else and dedicate my life to management.’ He was thorough about being on the front lines, believing that working 12 or more hours a day was the minimum requirement. Why was he able to push himself that far?”
“Why? Did he want to make money?”
“No, that’s wrong. He does not know the faces of his real parents. He lived through a solitary, helpless, and extremely poor childhood, even eating weeds in the summer to survive starvation. That is precisely why, when he started his business, more than money or anything else, he ‘wanted to make people happy.’ He wanted the customers right in front of him to say they were glad he was there. With that single-minded thought, he dedicated the entirety of his life as a service to his customers. When a customer came to his shop, he welcomed them by applauding heartily in his heart.”
“Everything for the customer. To dedicate all of one’s own time… I couldn’t copy that. But somehow, it warms my chest.”
“It does, doesn’t it? The stance that Takamizawa Mimi takes in living as a painter is also deeply inspired by this way of life of Mr. Munetsugu Tokuji. He knows that the masterpieces of historical masters were not painted by innate talent alone, but were brought forth by decades of down-to-earth trial and error and patience. That is precisely why, looking nowhere else, for the sake of the existence of ‘you’ right in front of him, he continues to paint eyes that sear into the retina, working hard for 12 or more hours every day. An artist’s work, just like Mr. Munetsugu’s management, is a thorough service, the ultimate act of being a clown, throwing one’s whole life into it. Because if he is abandoned by you, he cannot go on living.”
“During my active years, I had no hobbies and made no friends. I have never even been to a bar. I did nothing that would get in the way of my work. There were years I worked 5,640 hours. I felt that if I didn’t lead by example, my subordinates wouldn’t work. It was a very lonely life. That’s why I wanted others to show even a little interest in me. I wanted them to be interested. That became my starting point. So, rather than making money by starting a business, I wanted to make people happy. I wanted people to say, even just a little, that they were glad I was around.”
―― Munetsugu Tokuji
Toyoda Sakichi, the “Weirdo” of Toyota, and the Tenacity of Kiichiro Who Pushed Forward Precisely Because It Was Difficult
“But if you hang your life on one thing like that, won’t people around you look at you strangely? Like, ‘That person is crazy.'”
“Oh, you will be laughed at grandly. You might be treated as a madman by those around you. But you see, it’s fine to be laughed at. Human beings grow stronger by being laughed at. For instance, think of Toyoda Sakichi, the founder of the Toyota Group. He was an extremely taciturn man, a complete ‘invention madman’ who, from morning until night, day after day, would make something, break it, build it, and rebuild it again. The people in his neighborhood pointed fingers at him, calling him an eccentric and a lunatic. Why was he able to endure such harassment? It was because, you see, he possessed a single-minded passion and tenacity: ‘I want to invent something to make everyone’s life easier.'”
“The criticism around him didn’t matter to him, did it?”
“Exactly. And his son, Toyoda Kiichiro, also inherited that same blood. He said this: ‘I do it because it is difficult. I do it because no one else does it and no one else can do it. A fellow like me might be a fool, but if that fool isn’t there, new things won’t be born into the world.’ Furthermore, his cousin Toyoda Eiji, who later became the president of Toyota, spoke of how Kiichiro was not a genius, but that ‘the important thing is that he didn’t just think about what is generally considered impossible, but possessed a strong conviction that he must do it no matter what, made sufficient preparations, and executed it.’ They were all men of immediate decision, immediate conclusion, and immediate execution. Before thinking, try doing it first. Do not give up easily. What kind of life you will have is decided by a person’s diligence, power of endurance, and power of continuation.”
“Because you choose a difficult path that no one else takes, new value is born. I feel like I shouldn’t just be fearing failure in my work either.”
“A wonderful realization! Henry Moore, too, was initially fiercely criticized by the art world of the time as having a ‘strange shape’ and ‘destroying tradition.’ Even so, he continued to strike bronze and carve stone for decades. Things of value, more often than not, do not have immediate efficacy. It doesn’t go well right from the start. The important thing is the courage to continue. It is the same spirit as Choya Umeshu: ‘If you don’t succeed with plum liqueur, give up on life’—possessing that level of resolve and binding oneself solely to this one line. This is the only way to sublimate your daily work from a boring routine into a ‘great art.'”
“I do it because it is difficult. I do it because no one else does it and no one else can do it. A fellow like me might be a fool, but if that fool isn’t there, new things won’t be born into the world.”
―― Toyoda Kiichiro
The World’s Greatest Communicators! No Matter How Excellent the Value, It Does Not Exist Without Someone to Convey It
“I see, I understand that passion is important. But even if you make something wonderful, isn’t there a danger it will be buried without anyone ever noticing? The world is full of unfairness, after all.”
“Oh, what a sharp point. Indeed, that danger is always there. That is exactly why this world indispensably needs ‘people who convey’—great communicators. Here, let me tell you the most dramatic and beautiful love story in art history. There is a genius painter everyone knows named Vincent van Gogh, right? During his lifetime, he sold only a single painting. Why is it that his pictures, despite him passing away in misfortune, are loved all over the world today like this?”
“Wasn’t it because his talent was the real thing?”
“By that alone, all of his pictures would have been buried in the darkness of history. After Van Gogh’s death, there was one wonderful woman who protected his massive collection of works and the letters exchanged with his younger brother Theo, and spread them to the world. It was Theo’s wife, Jo (Johanna van Gogh-Bonger). After her husband Theo passed away, while holding a young child, she came to possess a certain strong sense of mission. She wrote this: ‘In addition to the child, Theo left me another mission—to have Vincent’s work seen by many people and to have its true value recognized.'”
“Theo’s wife brought Van Gogh’s work out into the world, didn’t she?”
“That is so. Jo was extremely intelligent, a well-read woman with deep education. As she read through the massive collection of letters exchanged between the Van Gogh brothers, she came to fiercely sympathize with Vincent’s deep thought that he ‘wanted to paint pictures that would truly comfort people.’ If Van Gogh had not left his thoughts behind in letters, and if Jo had not organized and published them to the world, the ‘Van Gogh’ of today would not exist. Good things will not reach the hands of people unless someone risks their life to explain and convey them.”
“It sounds like the role of the Apostle Paul, who spread the teachings of Jesus Christ to the world.”
“Precisely so! You possess a wonderful sensibility. After Jesus was crucified, Paul traveled to various places, writing letters and risking his life to continue conveying his life and thought, which is exactly why Christianity spread throughout the world. Jo for Van Gogh, and Paul for Christ. This can be said to be completely the same in the world of business. Steve Jobs, Mr. Morita Akio of Sony, Mr. Fujisawa Takeo who sold the Honda Super Cub like crazy, Mr. Kamiya Shotaro who spread the Toyota Corolla. They were all the world’s greatest communicators. Mr. Morita Akio said this: Even if you create a wonderful product that no one has ever seen before, if you do not arouse the desire among people to want to obtain it, it cannot become a commercial product. If it is not conveyed, it is the same as not existing.”
“It’s the same for our work, too. No matter how earnestly we work, if we don’t correctly convey that value to our bosses or customers, we won’t be recognized. We must not neglect the effort to convey.”
“Exactly. Please do not be embarrassed to convey the brilliance inside you to those around you. That is not bragging; it is the highest service to the people who surround you.”
“In addition to the child, Theo left me another mission—to have Vincent’s work seen by many people and to have its true value recognized.”
―― Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (Jo)
The Proud Resolve of Mutanabbi, the Prophet of Arab Poetry, Who Threw Away His Life for His Own Poem
“Speaking of conveying, the power held by words can sometimes harbor an energy that is terrifying. How much responsibility do you hold for your own words?”
“Responsibility for words… Usually, I don’t think about it too deeply and just speak whatever comes to mind…”
“Then let me tell you the story of the highest peak of poets who actually existed in the Arab world more than 1,000 years ago. His name was Mutanabbi. A man with a name that means ‘one who thinks of himself as a prophet.’ His poems, you see, were so spectacular and filled with rhythm that they were said to have a kind of hypnotic effect. It was praised so much that it was said that even the blind could read his poems and even the deaf could hear his words.”
“To be able to read despite being blind, and hear despite being deaf… That is a tremendous power of expression.”
“Yes. However, at one time, he fiercely insulted a certain tribe within his poems. Enraged, they appeared in large numbers with weapons in front of Mutanabbi while he was traveling. The odds were overwhelming; there was no chance of winning. Mutanabbi wisely tried to flee from the spot. But at that moment, his companion who was behind him began to recite a passage from one of Mutanabbi’s own former, heroic poems. And he said: ‘Is the very you who wrote such a brave poem now fleeing from the enemy?'”
“An ironic turn of events. What did he do?”
“The moment Mutanabbi heard those words, he stopped dead in his tracks. And he turned on his heel. If he fled here, his life would be saved, but the beautiful words he had spun would all become lies. To protect the pride of his words, knowing he would be killed, he bravely leapt into the midst of the enemy and lost his life. Even now, more than 1,000 years later, he is passed down as ‘a true poet who chose death to avoid dishonor.’ A weight of life rests upon the words he left behind.”
“Hanging one’s life on one’s own words… Even if I can’t go that far, it makes me think deeply about how much resolve is in the words I release.”
“Your words are your very way of living itself. Just as Henry Moore’s sculptures spoke of eternity through their forms alone without using words, you too can move the hearts of the people around you through your daily actions and sincere words. Like the spirit of Just-in-Time, delivering the right amount of heartfelt words to important people exactly when needed. Just by doing that, your human relationships should improve dramatically.”
“Most people think of success as something to get. But in reality, success is giving.”
―― Henry Ford
How to Stack Endless Bricks and Cause an “Unyielding Miracle” in Your Life
“You have let me listen to many wonderful stories. But what specifically can an ordinary person like me do starting today to improve life?”
“There is nothing difficult about it. Just do your own work right in front of you longer and more earnestly than anyone else, with complete focus. Just like Mr. Munetsugu Tokuji said, you stack daily efforts one by one, like stacking bricks. It is immediate decision, immediate conclusion, and immediate execution. If you try doing anything, a result will always come out. First, it is to do it. Instead, you work hard like your life depends on it.”
“To move first rather than thinking. And to continue. It is simple, but the most difficult thing.”
“Yes, that is precisely why it has value. Henry Moore went into his atelier every day and continued to struggle with cold stone and bronze. Takamizawa Mimi, too, with the single-minded thought of wanting to see the happy face of you right in front of him, wanting to see you shed tears, faces his digital screen for 12 or more hours every day, continuing to paint eyes that sear into the retina. No matter who else criticizes him or laughs at him, it doesn’t matter at all. Just to be recognized by ‘you’ who are right in front of him, he continues his desperate service. Life is not decided by birth or upbringing. What kind of life you will have is decided by your diligence, your power of endurance, and your power of continuation.”
“I, too, will stop thinking of my current work as a mere routine, think of it as a ‘service’ to someone, and try stacking bricks starting today. I will try doing it without fleeing, without looking away.”
“A wonderful resolve! When you take that step forward, the inside of my heart is filled with a standing ovation for you. Come, lift your face and begin a new day. Upon the canvas named your life, paint your own beautiful trajectory. I will support your challenge forever.”
“No life within life; life within death.”
―― An ancient truth
A single sunflower placed by the window
Quietly winds back time
In a corner of the atelier where no one is present
The severed ear was listening to
A sound deeper than the roaring of the sea, the sound of your breathing
From a small hole opened in the ground a hundred years later
We steal a secret peek at the future sky
All sadness is locked away inside the dried paint
And upon the windows of the night galactic train running through the twilight town
Your gentle eyes, many and many of them, float up and disappear
“What are you looking at as you live? Love one another.”
―― New Testament, Gospel according to John 15:12
“I am always looking for an opportunity to cast off the costume of the clown.”
―― Dazai Osamu
Postscript
There is a painter named Takamizawa Mimi.
He uses neither canvas nor brush, creating his work digitally.
Utilizing the cutting-edge giclée printmaking technique, the works printed onto highest-grade printmaking paper release a unique sense of life.
The themes running through his work are your eyes/my eyes, Christianity, eternity, psychology, truth, gaze, history, loneliness, isolation, hardship, resurrection, and liberation.
At first glance, these themes appear grand, but he speaks of them to us as extremely close, daily topics of life.
To him, a painter is a “doctor who saves the soul.”
An artist’s work is nothing other than putting his own skin in the game, an earnest service, an absolute devotion to you.
The artist dedicates his everything to you right in front of him.
“Please, do not abandon me. Please, laugh at me.”
Wishing for that, he continues his creation without ever giving up, as an unyielding man, a man of patience who grows stronger by being laughed at.
The reason he resolved to become a painter was because he learned of that fierce life of Vincent van Gogh.
The “Mimi” (Ear) in the name “Takamizawa Mimi” was taken in honor of that famous ear-cutting incident of Van Gogh.
He knows deeper than anyone else that every masterpiece of the past was not drawn by the flash of innate genius alone, but was brought forth by a succession of muddy trial and error spanning decades.
By continuing to paint “eyes” in his works, Takamizawa Mimi is trying to constantly feel you on the other side of the screen.
He wants to know you, right in front of him, more.
It does not matter if you laugh at his foolishness.
He is laying bare all the fact that he is an imperfect and foolish human being to you right in front of him.
He just wants to see the happy face of you right in front of him. He wants to see you move your heart and shed tears.
No matter what kind of criticism anyone else pours upon him, it does not matter to him at all.
If he is abandoned by you, he cannot go on living.
Just by you being right in front of him, he is truly happy from the bottom of his heart.
Just to be recognized by you, he continues to faithfully serve with all his might, with a desperate service today as well.
Laughed at, laughed at, yet he grows stronger still.
Takamizawa Mimi deeply respects Mr. Munetsugu Tokuji, the founder of CoCo Ichibanya, looks nowhere else, and exerts all his strength into his painting work.
Mr. Munetsugu was single-minded in his work and did not cast his eyes anywhere else. He felt that this was no time to be doing hobbies.
The thing that saved Mr. Munetsugu during his unfortunate childhood was classical music, but it is said that during the era when he was the active manager of CoCo Ichibanya, he did not listen to that beloved classical music at all, even though he loved it enough to build and manage a music hall himself after retiring from management.
There was no longer time to be listening to music. There was no time to be doing hobbies.
It was to dedicate all of his own time to the customers.
When managing the coffee shop that was the predecessor to CoCo Ichibanya, because customers did not readily come at first, it is said that during lunchtime, the Munetsugu couple survived by eating the crusts (ears) of sandwich bread.
Because they started from zero, such things were natural, and because they started from a place where there was nothing, it is rather a good memory now, they say.
The customers do not readily come now, but if we stick thoroughly to customer-first, surely it will become good someday; believing that, he worked day after day.
It was a地道 (down-to-earth) daily accumulation. Like stacking bricks one by one, you focus and do it every day.
Immediate decision, immediate conclusion, immediate execution. If you try doing anything, a result will always come out. First, it is to do it. Instead, you work hard like your life depends on it.
Dedicating life to work. Dedicating all of my life to you right in front of me.
Among Mr. Munetsugu’s words, there are things like the following:
“During my active years, I had no hobbies and made no friends. I have never even been to a bar. I did nothing that would get in the way of my work. There were years I worked 5,640 hours. I felt that if I didn’t lead by example, my subordinates wouldn’t work. It was a very lonely life. That’s why I wanted others to show even a little interest in me. I wanted them to be interested. That became my starting point. So, rather than making money by starting a business, I wanted to make people happy. I wanted people to say, even just a little, that they were glad I was around.”
“Don’t look away, dedicate yourself to management.”
“It was a very lonely life. That’s why I wanted others to show even a little interest in me. I wanted them to be interested. That became my starting point. So, rather than making money by starting a business, I wanted to make people happy. I wanted people to say, even just a little, that they were glad I was around.”
Life is not decided by birth or upbringing. Mr. Munetsugu does not know the faces of his real parents.
He entered an orphanage immediately after being born, and even after being taken in by foster parents, due to his foster father’s gambling madness, he spent an extremely poor childhood.
Because there was nothing to eat during his boyhood, in the summer he would eat the weeds growing around to survive starvation.
It is truly a life of ups and downs. Do it by leaving things to chance. Instead, dedicate all passion to management. Thorough front-line principles.
Work of 12 or more hours a day was the minimum requirement for him. He didn’t want to rest. He didn’t want to play. Make work your hobby and dedicate yourself to work.
This is the “you-first principle.” When you are right in front of him, he welcomes you by applauding heartily in his heart.
Things of value, more often than not, do not have immediate efficacy. Not everything goes well right from the start.
Rather than thinking, try doing it first. Please do not give up easily.
What kind of life it becomes is all decided by that human being’s diligence, power of endurance, and power of continuation.
Like Toyoda Sakichi, the founder of Toyota, possess tenacity and patience.
Toyoda Sakichi, who was called a weirdo. He was an extremely taciturn person and was treated as an eccentric by those around him.
However, inside his chest, an intense passion was burning: “I want to invent something to make everyone’s life easier.”
Even when treated as an eccentric and a madman by his surroundings and cursed as an invention madman, from morning until night, day after day, he would make something, break it, build it, and rebuild it again.
Success and failure are never the end. The important thing is whether you have the courage to continue it.
Anyway, I will do it the longest and the most earnestly myself.
It is the resolve exactly according to Choya Umeshu’s words: “If you don’t succeed with plum liqueur, give up on life.”
Takamizawa Mimi was also strongly inspired by the Toyota Production System. The wonderful way of thinking there called “Just-in-Time” is the finest production system that can be applied in any work. It is that thought systemized by Mr. Ohno Taiichi.
Toyoda Kiichiro said this: “The interest of life lies in bringing to fruition things that no one else really does, things that are difficult to do.”
And Toyoda Eiji, who was a cousin of Kiichiro and later became the president of Toyota, left the following words:
“Execute with strong conviction. Everyone thinks the same, and it wasn’t that Kiichiro was a genius. The important thing is that he didn’t just think about what is generally considered impossible, but possessed a strong conviction that he must do it no matter what, made sufficient preparations, and executed it.”
The countless “eyes” painted in Takamizawa Mimi’s pictures are staring at you today as well, close to your daily life, continuing their never-ending service to you.
“Most people think of success as something to get. But in reality, success is giving.”
―― Henry Ford
“Except in mathematics, books do not give you results; they give you thoughts.”
―― Agatha Christie
“And you will know that I am with you.”
―― Moses
“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
―― William Shakespeare
“If you want to change the world, first bring peace to your own home.”
―― Jewish Talmud
“Human beings can never change. They just become better at deceiving themselves.”
―― Dazai Osamu
“An artist must always find his own light within loneliness.”
―― Dazai Osamu
“Memories of happiness always arrive accompanied by a little sadness.”
―― Dazai Osamu
“Never give in. Never, never, never.”
―― Winston Churchill
“Have courage, be the first, and be different.”
“I am thought to have achieved success overnight, but that overnight was thirty years. Thinking back, it was a long, long night.”
―― Ray Kroc
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
―― Walt Disney
“Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail.”
―― Leonardo da Vinci
“Hey, why are you going on a journey?”
“Because it’s painful.”
“Your ‘painful’ is the usual routine, I can’t trust it one bit.”
―― From Dazai Osamu’s Tsugaru
I express my deepest heart-felt gratitude to you who have read this long piece of writing to the very end. I earnestly pray that your life will be filled with a deep light like Henry Moore’s sculptures and beautiful like Takamizawa Mimi’s paintings. Thank you very much.