15 Quotes by Ihara Saikaku

The first consideration for all, throughout life, is the earning of a living.

In life it is training rather than birth which counts.

For each of the four hundred and four bodily ailments celebrated physicians have produced infallible remedies, but the malady which brings the greatest distress to mankind – to even the wisest and cleverest of us – is the plague of poverty.

To make a fortune some assistance from fate is essential. Ability alone is insufficient.

When you send a clerk on business to a distant province, a man of rigid morals is not your best choice.

Men take their misfortunes to heart and keep them there.