"It is only through such real-life daily struggles and challenges that a genuine sensitivity to human rights can be inculcated. This is a truth that is not limited to school education: it applies to all of us."

"The gratification of desire is not happiness."

"Ultimately, all human activities have as their goal the realization of happiness. Why, then, have we ended up producing the opposite result? Could the underlying cause be our failure to correctly understand the true nature of happiness?"

"Poems and songs penned as an unstoppable outpouring of the heart take on a life of their own. They transcend the limits of nationality and time as they pass from person to person, from one heart to another."

"From tea parties to the election in Massachusetts, we are witnessing the single greatest political pushback in American history."

"We do not remember the passing of hours, but the resonance of moments. A lesson woven into the fabric of human history — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Since ancient times, people from throughout Asia have brought to Japan their talents, knowledge and energy, helping to lay the basis for Japan's existence as a country."

"I think the materialist conception of history is valid."