A library of wisdom
Wabi-Sabi — Quotes
Wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness — the cracked bowl mended with gold, the moss on old stone, the single flower past A curated set of 30 quotes from the Wabi-Sabi tradition.
“When the tea bowl is cracked, the crack is not a flaw to be hidden. It is the bowl's history, and the gold that mends it is the bowl's honour.”
“In the tearoom, the host sweeps and waters the path, but leaves a few fallen leaves where they lie. Even cleanliness must not be perfect.”
“Rikyu's son swept the garden until it was spotless. Rikyu shook a maple, and three leaves fell. "Now," he said, "it is clean."”
“Tea is naught but this: first you make the water boil, then infuse the tea. Then you drink it properly. That is all you need to know.”
“The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.”
“Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order.”
“The mistakes of beauty are dearer to us than the flawlessness of the machine.”
“We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates.”
“Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.”
“We do not dislike everything that shines, but we do prefer a pensive lustre to a shallow brilliance — a murky light that, whether in a stone or an artifact, bespeaks a sheen of antiquity.”
“Wabi-sabi is the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is the beauty of things modest and humble. It is the beauty of things unconventional.”
“Pare down to the essence, but don't remove the poetry. Keep things clean and unencumbered, but don't sterilise.”
“Wabi-sabi is exactly about the great, getting-old universe and our tiny, temporary place within it.”
“All things are impermanent, all things are imperfect, and all things are incomplete. Three simple realities — and wabi-sabi is the grace of living inside them rather than against them.”
“Wabi-sabi reminds us that we are all transient beings on this planet — that our bodies, as well as the material world around us, are in the process of returning to dust.”
“If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi.”
“The crow, having no garments, is never cold. The pheasant, dragging its long tail, is never delayed. Each thing is enough as it is.”
“The thief left it behind — the moon at the window.”
“My hut burned down — now I can see the moon more clearly.”
“An old silent pond. A frog jumps in — the sound of water.”
“The temple bell stops — but the sound keeps coming out of the flowers.”
“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”
“The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty.”
“If man were never to fade away like the dews of Adashino, never to vanish like the smoke over Toribeyama, but lingered on forever in the world, how things would lose their power to move us!”
“Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless? Branches about to blossom, or a garden strewn with faded flowers, are worthier of our admiration.”
“The beauty of a craft lies not in its perfection, but in the honesty of the hand that made it and the use that wears it.”
“Man is most free when his tools are proportionate to his needs.”
“It is the imperfect, the irregular, the momentary, that holds the deepest beauty — for it alone reminds us we are alive and passing.”
“The flower of perfect knowledge blooms in the gap where certainty ends.”
“Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. Once you accept this, the world stops being a disappointment and starts being a marvel.”