Murasaki Shikibu — "Foolish indeed are those who trust to fortune."

"People who do not get into scrapes are a great deal less interesting than those who do."

"It is useless to talk with those who do not understand one and troublesome to talk with those who criticize from a feeling of superiority. Especially one-sided persons are troublesome. Few are accompl…"

"Well, we never expected this!' they all say. 'No one liked her. They all said she was pretentious, awkward, difficult to approach, prickly, too fond of her tales, haughty, prone to versifying, disdain…"

"Old age is a disease from which there is no recovery but the old nun's recent attack had certainly been brought on chiefly by the fatigue of so much travelling."

"There are as many sorts of women as there are women."