“Karma is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very important. The strong are the patient ones, Anjin-san. patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don't give way to the seven, you're patient, then you'll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Always remember, child" her first teacher had impressed on her, "that to think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral you down into ever-increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that need disipline –training- is about. So train your mind to dwell on sweet perfumes, the touch of this silk, tender raindrops against the shoji, the curve of the flower arrangement, the tranquillity of dawn. Then, at length, you won't have to make such a great effort and you will be of value to yourself,…”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“How beautiful life is and how sad! How fleeting, with no past and no future, only a limitless now.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“It's a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for the world to see, another in his breast to show to his special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except to himself alone, hidden only God knows where.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Isn’t it only through laughter that we become one with the gods and thus can endure life and can overcome all the horror and waste and suffering here on earth? …Isn’t it only through laughter we can stay human?”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“.., by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“First the priests arrive. Then the conquistadores.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“What can I do to help thee?" he asked.
"Believe there is a tomorrow.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“There is no dignity for either the sufferer or the torturer”
― James Clavell, Shogun

“Isn't man but a blossom taken by wind, and only the mountains and the sea and the stars and this land of the gods everlasting?”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“We have a saying that time has no single measure, that time can be like frost or lightning or a tear or siege or storm or sunset, or even like a rock.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Of what real value is a title? The power is the only important thing”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san. Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal. We have no word for 'love' as I understand you to mean it. Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“He remembered the pride-filled glow that had swamped Gyoko's face and he wondered again at the bewildering gullibility of people. How baffling it was that even the most cunning and clever people would frequently see only what they wanted to see, and would rarely look beyond the thinnest of facades. Or they would ignore reality, dismissing it as the facade. And then, when their whole world fell to pieces and they were on their knees slitting their bellies or cutting their throats, or cast out into the freezing world, they would tear their topknots or rend their clothes and bewail their karma, blaming gods or kami or luck or their lords or husbands or vassals -- anything or anything -- but never themselves.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“It's always important to take time to study men -- important men. Friends and enemies.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Oare ce-s nourii
Daca nu o justificare a cerului?
Oare ce-i viata
Daca nu o amanare a mortii?”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Perhaps that is why we love life so much, Anjin-san. You see, we have to. Death is part of our air and sea and earth. You should know, Anjin-san, in this Land of Tears, death is our heritage.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Why is she afraid?" he asked. "She's not Anjin-san. Just a little nervous. Please excuse her. She's never seen a foreigner close to before." "Tell her when the moon's full, barbarians sprout horns and fire comes out of our mouths like dragons.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“The law may upset reason but reason may never upset the law, or our whole society will shred like an old tatami. The law may be used to confound reason, reason must certainly not be used to overthrow the law.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“How can a man be so brave and so stupid, so gentle and so cruel, so warming and so detestable -- all at the same time?”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Isn't it only laughter we can stay human?”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“You're a cruel, cold-gutted, heartless bastard but you've got majesty, no doubt about that.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Horses are far worse than men for treachery...”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Още сега стани скала, в която вълните на живота ще се удрят напразно...”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“So sorry”
― James Clavell, Shōgun
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“Always remember, child... that to think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral you down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one onf the things that discipline - training - is about.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Sometimes it's wiser to give a quarry extra line -- that's how to catch a fish, neh?”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Blackthorne, beside the gates, was still turmoiled by his boundless joy at her reprieve and he remembered how his own will had been stretched that night of his near-seppuku, when he had had to get up as a man and walk home as a man unsupported, and became samurai. And he watched her, despising the need for this courage, yet understanding it, even honoring it.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Men need to whisper secrets, Lady. That’s what makes them different from us – they need to share secrets, but we women only reveal them to gain an advantage.”
― James Clavell, Shogun