201Japanese quotation 名言
人は城、人は石垣、人は堀
ひとはしろ、ひとはいしがき、ひとはほりHito wa shiro, hito wa ishigaki, hito wa hori
“People are the castle, people are the walls, people are the moat.”
The meaning
No fortress is worth the loyalty of those who hold it. What truly protects a house, a team, a work, are the people bound to it.
At the origin
A poem attributed to lord Takeda Shingen, who never built a great castle — a traditional attribution.
The characters
- 人 hitopeople
- は watopic marker
- 城 shirocastle
- 、
- 人
- は
- 石垣
- 、
- 人
- は
- 堀
はParticleMarks the topic: what the sentence is about — “as for…”.
In practice
Invest in people before investing in walls.
Editorial note
Traditional attribution.