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The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture
Ruth Benedict
Top 10 Best Quotes
“There are two kinds of opportunities: one which we chance upon, the other which we create.”
“Japan likewise put her hopes of victory on a different basis from that prevalent in the United States. (...) Even when she was winning, her civilian statesmen, her High Command, and her soldiers repeated that this was no contest between armaments; it was pitting of our faith in things against their faith in spirit.”
“the Japanese love the theme. They play up suicide as Americans play up crime and they have the same vicarious enjoyment of it. They choose to dwell on events of self-destruction instead of on destruction of others.”
“Such men will never know the added love of their culture which comes from a knowledge of other ways of life.”
“You owed him absolute obedience because you were Japanese.”
“Their suffering is no judgment of God upon them. It shows that they fulfilled their duty at all costs and allowed nothing—not abandonment or sickness or death—to divert them from the true path.”
“The typical Japanese swing of mood is from intense dedication to intense boredom,”
“The hero we sympathize with because he is in love or cherishes some personal ambition, they condemn as weak because he has allowed these feelings to come between him and his gimu or his giri.”
“The heavier our bodies, the higher our will, our spirit, rises above them.' 'The wearier we are, the more splendid the training.”
“The Japanese, she argues, are unusually sensitive to the opinion of others. Shame comes from not living up to social obligations. You can feel guilty about a crime that goes unnoticed. Shame depends on the observation of others.”
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Book Keywords:
victory, japan, faith, war, materialism, spirit, united-states