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Miyamoto Musashi Quotes

Total quotes: 61
“You can abandon your own body, but never let go of your honor.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone): Half Crazy, Half Genius- Finding Modern Meaning in the Sword Saint's Last Words
Tagged: Body, Honor, Sacrifice
“Respect the gods without relying on their help.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone): Half Crazy, Half Genius- Finding Modern Meaning in the Sword Saint's Last Words
Tagged: Self-Reliance, gods, Respect
“Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone): Half Crazy, Half Genius- Finding Modern Meaning in the Sword Saint's Last Words
Tagged: Pleasure, Hedonism
“Whenever you cross swords with an enemy you must not think of cutting him either strongly or weakly; just think of cutting and killing him. Be intent solely on killing the enemy.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Swordfighting, Enemy, strategy, Murder
“If the enemy remains spirited it is difficult to crush him.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Enemy, strategy, Spirit
“If you once make an attack and fail, there is little chance of success if you use the same approach again.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: strategy, Success, Failure
“Many things can cause a loss of balance. One cause is danger, another is hardship, and another is surprise.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Balance, danger, Hardship, surprise
“In large-scale strategy, when the enemy starts to collapse you must pursue him without letting the chance go. If you fail to take advantage of your enemies' collapse, they may recover.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: strategy, Enemy
“Everything can collapse. Houses, bodies, and enemies collapse when their rhythm becomes deranged.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Collapse, Decay, Black PIll, rhythm, enemies
“Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: strategy, Warrior Spirit, victory
“Step by step walk the thousand-mile road.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Persistence
“Waiting is bad. Always quickly re-assume your attitudes to both sides, cut the enemies down as they advance, crushing them in the direction from which they attack. Whatever you do, you must drive the enemy together, as if tying a line of fishes, and when they are seen to be piled up, cut them down strongly without giving them room to move.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Swordfighting, strategy
“‘There are many enemies’ applies when you are fighting one against many. Draw both sword and companion sword and assume a wide-stretched left and right attitude. The spirit is to chase the enemies around from side to side, even though they come from all four directions. Observe their attacking order, and go to meet first those who attack first. Sweep your eyes around broadly, carefully examining the attacking order, and cut left and right alternately with your swords.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Swordfighting, enemies, Stance, Battle
“When you take up a sword, you must feel intent on cutting the enemy.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Winning, Determination
“You must cultivate your wisdom and spirit. Polish your wisdom: learn public justice, distinguish between good and evil, study the Ways of different arts one by one. When you cannot be deceived by men you will have realized the wisdom of strategy.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Wisdom, Spirit, Justice, Good And Evil, strategy
“Be neither insufficiently spirited nor over spirited. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Overconfident, Underconfident, Enemy, Spirit
“This is the Way for men who want to learn my strategy:
Do not think dishonestly.
The Way is in training.
Become acquainted with every art.
Know the Ways of all professions.
Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything.
Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
Pay attention even to trifles.
Do nothing which is of no use.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Honesty, Training, Gain and Loss, Judgment
“You win in battles with the timing in the Void born of the timing of cunning by knowing the enemies' timing, and this using a timing which the enemy does not expect.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Battles, Swordfighting, Timing, Cunning, Enemy, surprise
“Students of the Ichi school Way of strategy should train from the start with the sword and long sword in either hand. This is the truth: when you sacrifice your life, you must make fullest use of your weaponry. It is false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: strategy, Swordfighting, Ichi
“It is said the warrior's is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways. Even if a man has no natural ability he can be a warrior by sticking assiduously to both divisions of the Way. Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Pen and Sword, Death, Resolute, warrior
“Strategy is the craft of the warrior. Commanders must enact the craft, and troopers should know this Way. There is no warrior in the world today who really understands the Way of strategy.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: strategy, Craft, warrior
“From youth my heart has been inclined toward the Way of strategy. My first duel was when I was thirteen, I struck down a strategist of the Shinto school, one Arima Kihei. When I was sixteen I struck down an able strategist Tadashima Akiyama. When I was twenty-one I went up to the capital and met all manner of strategists, never once failing to win in many contests.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Dueling, Swordfighting, Autoboiographical, Shinto
“What I call the void is where nothing exists. It is about things outside man's knowledge. Of course the void does not exist. By knowing what exist, you can know that which does not exist. That is the void.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Void, Knowledge, Existence
“Nobody is strong and nobody is weak if he conceives of the body, from the head to the sole of the foot, as a unity in which a living mind circulates everywhere equally.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: strength, Weakness, Unity, equally, Mind
“You should not have a favourite weapon. To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: weapon, Familiarity, Room for Growth, strategy
“A man cannot understand the art he is studying if he only looks for the end result without taking the time to delve deeply into the reasoning of the study.”
— Miyamoto Musashi
Tagged: Man, Art, Understanding, Mastery, Perfection
“When your opponent is hurrying recklessly, you must act contrarily and keep calm. You must not be influenced by the opponent.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Opponent, calmness, strategy, influence
“In strategy your spiritual bearing must not be any different from normal. Both in fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. Even when your spirit is calm do not let your body relax, and when your body is relaxed do not let your spirit slacken.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Water Book
Tagged: strategy, Spirituality, calmness, Relaxed
“There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Ground Book
Tagged: Time, Timing, strategy, practice
“These things cannot be explained in detail. From one thing, know ten thousand things. When you attain the Way of strategy there will not be one thing you cannot see. You must study hard.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Ground Book
Tagged: strategy, Studying Hard, Effort, Knowledge
“It is difficult to know yourself if you do not know others. To all Ways there are side-tracks. If you study a Way daily, and your spirit diverges, you may think you are obeying a good way, but objectively it is not the true Way. If you are following the true Way and diverge a little, this will later become a large divergence. You must realise this.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Spirituality, way of life
“To know ten thousand things, know one well.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Wisdom, Mastery, Familiarity, Knowledge
“Do not sleep under a roof. Carry no money or food. Go alone to places frightening to the common brand of men. Become a criminal of purpose. Be put in jail, and extricate yourself by your own wisdom.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: purpose, Life, Nomad, Criminality
“All man are the same except for their belief in their own selves, regardless of what others may think of them.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Men, Equality, Belief
“Get beyond love and grief: exist for the good of Man.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Love, Grief, Existence, Man
“It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Universe, planets, Understanding, Knowledge
“Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Perception, Vision
“If you wish to control others you must first control yourself.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Control, Controlling Yourself, Controlling Others
“The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Martial Arts, Aim, goal
“Do nothing that is of no use.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Tagged: Time, Using Time Wisely, Priorities
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