179 Wise Japanese Quotes and Proverbs to Level Up Your Wisdom

Japanese quotes are simple and convey clear messages. These messages are usually centered on the concept of ancient wisdom.

You can learn a lot about Japanese proverbs and how to live in peace by reading them. Take your time looking at them. Did you know that these sayings are written in a variety of styles?

But that shouldn’t matter because the important thing here is that you can pick up a lot from it.

We’ve all heard good things about Japan and its language. They have already been in charge of almost all countries for ten years. So, do you believe their country-specific quotes can go wrong?

You can improve your thinking by reading our collection of Japanese quotes, which will help you think evidently and achieve a significant lifestyle.

Don’t worry: these Japanese sayings have been translated into English so: you can read them with ease and implement them in your daily life.

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Popular Japanese Quotes

Popular Japanese sayings emphasize the importance of never thinking too highly of ourselves. Many other things in the world are far too massive to contemplate. Below are some quotes for you to read.

1. Let what is past flow away downstream.
2. A frog in a well does not know the great ocean.
3. You can know ten things by learning one.
4. The reverse side also has a reverse side.
5. There are hardships and there are delights.
6. Better to be a crystal and to be broken, than to be a tile upon the housetop.
7. To overcome a desperate situation, make a complete turn in one sudden burst.
8. A bad wife is a ruin of her husband.
9. There is luck in the last helping.
10. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You can’t do anything without risking something.
11. Something which is out of season and therefore rendered useless.
12. Experience the beauties of nature, and in doing so learn about yourself.
13. To come out of a desperate situation and make a complete return in one sudden burst.
14. That’s what you get, Just desserts, you reap what you sow.
15. Stepping into a melon field, standing under a plum tree.
16. A bolt from the blue. A complete surprise.
17. There’s no accounting for taste. To each his own.

Famous Japanese Quotes

We are all aware of how self-love is practiced in Japan through medication and other means. However, you must first clear your mind. These famous Japanese sayings are all about forgiving and forgetting.

1. Things will never be as you imagine, so you’re better off not seeing them. Reality can’t compete with imagination.
2. Giving a gift to someone who can’t appreciate it. A useless gesture; Pearls before swine.
3. A situation where one cannot let their guard down (because the cat can’t resist stealing your fish).
4. Perseverance is better than defeat.
5. Giving up at the first sign of difficulty.
6. Fear is greater than the danger. An attempt is sometimes easier than expected.
7. Death will cure a fool. You can’t fix stupid.
8. Don’t make waves Apply your effort where it will do the most good Excellence breeds envy and/or enmity it’s better to conform than to stick out.
9. Arbitration in a quarrel is a godsend.
10. Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of.
11. The person to whom it is directed prefers practical gain to aesthetics.
12. Forgive and forget; water under the bridge
13. Adversity builds character. After a storm, things will stand on more solid ground than they did before.
14. To spend time chitchatting or to waste time in the middle of a task.
15. Farm when it’s sunny, read when it rains.

Inspirational Japanese Quotes

You can motivate yourself by reading these Japanese inspirational quotes, which will motivate you to get up every day and work for yourself. Hard work pays off something that the Japanese take far too seriously.

1. Rained on ground hardens (Adversity builds character).
2. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice inside the ceiling laugh (Nobody knows what tomorrow might bring).
3. A samurai, even when he has not eaten, uses his toothpick.
4. A wise man does not lose his way, a brave man does not fear.
5. To gamble as the dice fall.
6. If eating poison finish up the plate (or, If eating poison don’t forget to lick the plate).
7. To draw water into one’s own rice field
8. Feed a dog for three days and it is grateful for three years. Feed a cat for three years and it forgets after three days.
9. With the first glass a man drinks wine, with the second glass the wine drinks the wine, with the third glass the wine drinks the man.
10. Time flies like an arrow.
11. The country is in ruins, and there are still mountains and rivers.
12. The eyes speak as much as the mouth. (love needs no words)
13. The eyes are the mirror of the soul.
14. Heart rather than appearance.
15. Cover the ears and steal the bell.

Motivational Japanese Quotes

It is said in Japan that dumplings are over flowers. This means that dumplings can fill you up, whereas flowers are only pretty to look at. These lovely Japanese motivational quotes teach us to prioritize our needs over our desires.

1. Suspicion will raise bogies. 
2. Dead men tell no tales. 
3. Die in peace. 
4. One stroke, two halves. 
5. To lose is to win. 
6. You can’t fight without an opponent. 
7. The soul of a three year old until a hundred.
8. To dig one’s grave
9. If unreason comes, reason goes.
10. a useless long object
11. It is the same life whether we spend it crying or laughing.
12. to fall seven times, to rise eight times
13. People want to avoid the dew before they become wet.
14. Half an hour in a spring evening is worth a thousand gold pieces.
15. Few against many.

Funny Japanese Quotes

People in Japan are fine with developing a callus in their ears. Of course, certainly not. It is used to describe people who do the same thing over. These are the funny Japanese sayings you use to keep judgmental people at bay.

1. Dumplings over roses.
2. I’m growing a callus in my ear.
3. When poisoned, you might as well swallow the plate.
4. A mink’s/weasel’s last fart.
5. Whenever three women gather it is noisy.
6. A dog-and-monkey relationship.
7. Like a barrel of potatoes.
8. Like acorns comparing their height.
9. Never had to lift anything heavier than a pair of chopsticks.
10. A man in the house is worth two in the street.
11. The wise never marry. And when they marry they become otherwise.
12. Beauty is skin deep; ugly goes right to the bone.
13. Even monkeys fall from trees.
14. My hand is coming out of my throat.
15. A carp on a cutting board.

Cute Japanese Quotes

Friendships are the purest form of meeting strangers and becoming important in their lives. You can use cute Japanese sayings to show your best friends how much you care about them.

1. Work in the fields on a fine day, read books on a rainy day.
2. If you make a mistake, don’t hesitate to correct it.
3. One cannot quarrel without an opponent.
4. The more stupid the child the dearer it is.
5. Repentance never comes first.
6. Due to the presence of fools wise people stand out.
7. Even when our sleeves brush together it is our karma.
8. To go in the right ear and out the left.
9. There are even bugs that eat knotweed.
10. Like father, like son.
11. Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody’s perfect.
12. If a fish is kind to the water, the water will be kind to the fish.

Short Japanese Quotes

Never underestimate the power of short Japanese quotes. These short sayings contain important messages about your life and emphasize the importance of making small changes in order to receive something big. Something you could never have imagined.

1. Knock on a stone bridge before crossing it.
2. Three years sitting on a rock.
3. Fall down seven times, stand up eight.
4. Kappa swept away by the river.
5. Fishing bream with shrimp as bait.
6. Good things, many devils.
7. Two bodies, same heart.
8. The talented hawk hides its claws.
9. A pearl to a pig.
10. It is foolish to deal with a fool.
11. A skilled swordsman has superior manners.
12. It’s easier to give birth than to think about it.
13. Love and coughing cannot be hidden.
14. Once in a lifetime encounter.

Common Japanese Quotes

The concept of being unique is included in the following common Japanese sayings. Making an unusual move. Most of the time, it results in criticism. However, if you are confident about doing something different than others, do not give up.

1. Know the pain of others by pinching yourself.
2. Flowers even bloom on grass that has been stomped on.
3. Hide your head but fail to hide your butt.
4. Even sea bream loses its flavor when eaten alone.
5. More haste, less speed.
6. Better to ask and be embarrassed than not ask and never know.
7. Good fences make good neighbors.
8. Touch red pigment, become red.
9. What one likes, one will do well at.
10. Don’t look back, don’t look back, there is no dream in the back.
11. Believe in people, but believe in yourself a hundred times more. 
12. There’s luck in the leftovers.
13. A frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean.

Japanese Quotes about Life

There are several Japanese sayings about life to which you can relate. Most of them warn us to be cautious about what we say. If you don’t think before you speak, your mouth can be your worst enemy.

1. Even when months and days are long, life is short.
2. The reputation of thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.
3. Beginning is easy, continuing is hard.
4. Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid of standing still.
5. We learn little from victory, much from defeat.
6. If you understand everything you must be misinformed.
7. One kind word can warm three winter months.
8. The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak tree that resists.
9. Boasting begins where wisdom stops.
10. The face becomes a mirror of the soul.
11. If you have no failure in life, you will fail in life.
12. You can bring textbooks, notes, supporters, anything into life.
13. If you are in a hurry, go the long way around.
14. Even a fool has at least one talent. 
15. What you love to do, you will learn to do well.  
16. When you reject gifts from heaven you will be rewarded in hell. 
17. Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is a nightmare. 

Japanese Quotes about Love

If you read any of these Japanese sayings about love, it will undoubtedly melt your heart. Love is likened to a cough. You can’t hide when you need to cough, and we can’t hide when we like someone. 

1. Love and be loved. Love is the reward of love.
2. Make a beloved child travel.
3. Romance is self-oriented; love is companion-/partner-oriented.
4. It’s nonsense to think about your profits and losses in front of love.
5. Courtesy should be exercised even among intimate relationships.
6. All married women are not wives. 
7. Never rely on the glory of the morning nor the smiles of your mother-in-law
8. If there is love, smallpox scars are as pretty as dimples. 
9. Who travels for love finds a thousand miles not longer than one. 
10. In the eyes of a lover a pock-marked face is one with pretty dimples. 
11. Eat before falling in love. 
12. Love and a cough cannot be hidden. 
13. When someone offends you, you haven’t given him enough love. 
14. The extreme form of passionate love is secret love. 

Japanese Quotes about Death

When the topic of death is discussed, we all get a big scare. Death is a close call in which you can see your entire life flash before your eyes. Japanese sayings about death can give you a glimpse of it.

1. Drunken life, dreamy death.
2. One life, one encounter.
3. The go-between wears out a thousand sandals.
4. Duty is heavy as a mountain but Death is lighter than a feather.
5. One thousand days to learn; ten thousand days to refine.
6. One’s Act, One’s profit/Advantage.
7. Spilt water will not return to the tray.
8. Wake from death and return to life.
9. A fool is only cured by dying.
10. To wait for luck is the same as waiting for death.
11. The pensioner gets the wages of the death.
12. Trying to do two things at once will make you fail in both?
13. Don’t give up. Just continuing to hold on will yield/reveal strength and power.
14. Continuing on after a setback is its own kind of strength. Perseverance is power.
15. The environment makes our characters.

Japanese Quotes about Happiness

Happiness arises from within. It means that in order to be happy, you must focus solely on yourself. Japanese quotes about happiness can help you accept yourself as you are.

1. Into the house where joy lives, happiness will gladly come.
2. Happiness rarely keeps company with an empty stomach.
3. Beat your wife on the wedding day, and your married life will be happy.
4. Unhappiness can be a bridge to happiness.
5. Happiness spring cleans the heart.
6. Happiness is to hold flowers in both hands.
7. Same kind calls friends.
8. Family is not something that is there, but something that is fostered with care and time.
9. The greatest happiness of life is happy and quality time with family.
10. Never put your happiness in someone else’s hands.
11. A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness.
12. Happiness held is the seed happiness shared is the flower.
13. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.
14. Be a blessing to someone today.

Final Thoughts on Japanese Quotes

We hope that these Japanese quotes will help you understand life in all of its facets. We have included Japanese quotes about life, love, death, and happiness.

These Japanese proverbs have been translated into English to help you understand how to live your life to the fullest. You should put them into action in your life.

By following their traditional famous Japanese sayings, you can see the success rate of the Japanese people. They are considering the practical. They always tend to favor logic over emotions.

It is one of the primary reasons why Japan is regarded as one of the world’s top developing countries.

Are you moved by these amusing but all-too-real mantras? Each culture has its own set of maxims and clever expressions, but Japan has the most intriguing ones.

Why not try teaching some of these Japanese quotes to your friends and family to pique their interest in Japanese culture?