“To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance.”

“We're supposed to strive for harmony, and that's what the art of tea is supposed to accomplish... but harmony is very, very difficult to achieve in this country. Tea ceremony is powerless. But it's also not such a bad thing either. You should enjoy it while you can.”

“A truly elegant taste is generally accompanied with excellency of heart.”

“We shall never achieve harmony with the land, anymore than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve but to strive.”

“Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility. It insists on living its own life.”

“You can achieve the highest level of academic, financial, physical, emotional and spiritual success but you won’t achieve true harmony until you cook your own meal.”