141Japanese quotation 名言
和を以て貴しとなす
わをもってとうとしとなすWa o motte tōtoshi to nasu
“Hold harmony as the precious thing.”
The meaning
Putting concord before confrontation is not weakness: it is the condition for decisions to be discussed frankly and held together.
At the origin
The first article of the Seventeen-Article Constitution attributed to Prince Shōtoku (604), a founding text of Japanese public ethics.
The characters
- 和 waharmony
- を oobject marker
- 以て motteby means of
- 貴し
- と
- なす
をParticleMarks the object: what the action falls upon.
In practice
In the next disagreement, find the point of accord first, then the rest.