Kazuo Ishiguro

Although, he has certainly written far more obviously Japanese works (A Pale View Of Hills, An Artist Of The Floating World), it is the distillation of Japanese qualities in the days of World War II as being indistinguishable from those of his adoptive culture that makes his Booker-winning novel, Thae Remains Of The Day, a relevant study of his Japaneseness.

No One Said It'd Be Easy

"Good people will do what they find honorable to do, even if it requires hard work; they'll do it even if it causes them injury; they'll do it even if it wil bring danger. Again, they won't do what they find base, even if it brings wealth, pleasure, or power. Nothing will deter them from what is honorable, and nothing will lure them into what is base."

-Seneca, Moral Letters, 76.18

Protect The Flame

"Protet your own good in all that you do, and as concerns everything else take what is given as far as you can make reasoned use of iy. If you don't, you'll be unlucky, prone to failure, hindered and stymied."

-Epictetus, Discourses, 4.3.11

Turn Have To Into Get To

"The task of a philosopher: we should bring our own will into harmony with whatever happens, so that nothing happens against our will and nothing that we wish for fails to happens."

-Epictetus, Discourses, 2.14.7

On Duty and Circumstance

"Never shrik the proper dispatch of your duty, nomatter if you are freezing or hot, groggy or well-rested, vilified or praised, not even if dying or pressed by other demands. Even dying is one of the most important assignments of life and, in this as in all else, make the most of your resources to do well the duty at hand."

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.2

Do Your Job

"Whatever anyone does or says, for my part I'm bound to the good.

In the same way an emerald or gold or purple might always proclaim:

'Whatever anyone does or says,  I must be what I am and show my true colours.'"

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.15