Matsuo Basho Quotes

• Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.

  Matsuo Basho

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

  save quote report

• Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.

  Matsuo Basho

  Beautiful, Real, Writing

  save quote report

• Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

  Matsuo Basho

  Inspirational, Nature, Healing

  save quote report

• Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.

  Matsuo Basho

  Water, Enlightenment, Woods

  save quote report

• No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it.

  Matsuo Basho

  Lying, Passion, Matter

  save quote report

• There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

  Matsuo Basho

  Flower, Moon, Thinking

  save quote report

• Operating superficially, the mind is random in its activity and stale in its insights and images. However, with practice and experience the mind is freed from the skull, and the fresh and new can appear as though for the first time. It

  Matsuo Basho

  Time, Practice, Skulls

  save quote report

• Make the universe your companion, always bearing in mind the true nature of things-mountains and rivers, trees and grasses, and humanity-and enjoy the falling blossoms and the scattering leaves.

  Matsuo Basho

  Fall, Rivers, Tree

  save quote report

• Go to the object. Leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Do not impose yourself on the object. Become one with the object. Plunge deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there.

  Matsuo Basho

  Action, Enough, Plunge

  save quote report

• Without the bitterest cold that penetrates to the very bone, how can plum blossoms send forth their fragrance to the whole world?

  Matsuo Basho

  Life, World, Plums

  save quote report

• The desire to break the silence with constant human noise is, I believe, precisely an avoidance of the sacred terror of that divine encounter.

  Matsuo Basho

  Believe, Silence, Desire

  save quote report

• A flute with no holes is not a flute.

  Matsuo Basho

  Flutes, Holes

  save quote report

• Come, butterfly It's late- We've miles to go together.

  Matsuo Basho

  Butterfly, Together, Miles

  save quote report

• The moon and sun are travelers through eternity. Even the years wander on. Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

  Matsuo Basho

  Horse, Home, Moon

  save quote report

• From the pine tree, learn of the pine tree; And from the bamboo, of the bamboo

  Matsuo Basho

  Inspirational Life, Tree, Bamboo

  save quote report

• Learn how to listen as things speak for themselves.

  Matsuo Basho

  Speak

  save quote report

• Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Otherwise you impose yourself on the object and you do not learn.

  Matsuo Basho

  Want, Bamboo, Preoccupation

  save quote report

• How much I desire! Inside my little satchel, the moon, and flowers

  Matsuo Basho

  Flower, Moon, Desire

  save quote report

• In this poor body, composed of one hundred bones and nine openings, is something called spirit, a flimsy curtain swept this way and that by the slightest breeze. It is spirit, such as it is, which led me to poetry, at first little more than a pastime, then the full business of my life. There have been times when my spirit, so dejected, almost gave up the quest, other times when it was proud, triumphant. So it has been from the very start, never finding peace with itself, always doubting the worth of what it makes.

  Matsuo Basho

  Writing, Poetry, Doubt

  save quote report

• An autumn night - don’t think your life didn’t matter.

  Matsuo Basho

  Autumn, Thinking, Night

  save quote report

• With every gust of wind, the butterfly changes its place on the willow.

  Matsuo Basho

  Butterfly, Wind

  save quote report

• When composing a verse let there not be a hair's breath separating your mind from what you write; composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy.

  Matsuo Basho

  Writing, Positivity, Hair

  save quote report

• Learn about a pine tree from a pine tree, and about a bamboo plant from a bamboo plant.

  Matsuo Basho

  Learning, Tree, Bamboo

  save quote report

• When your consciousness has become ripe in true zazen-pure like clear water, like a serene mountain lake, not moved by any wind-then anything may serve as a medium for realization.

  Matsuo Basho

  Wind, Lakes, Water

  save quote report

• April's air stirs in Willow-leaves...a butterfly Floats and balances

  Matsuo Basho

  Spring, Butterfly, Air

  save quote report

You May Also Like:

Yosa Buson

Kobayashi Issa

Masaoka Shiki

Ihara Saikaku

Saigyō

Hokusai

Ryokan Taigu

Joan of Arc