Musashi Quotes

From inside fortifications, the gun has no equal among weapons. It is the supreme weapon on the field before the ranks clash, but once swords are crossed the gun becomes useless. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

One must make the warrior walk his everyday walk. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Consider yourself lightly; consider the world deeply. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

When you appreciate the power of nature, knowing the rhythm of any situation, you will be able to hit the enemy naturally and strike naturally. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

It may seem difficult at first, but all things are difficult at first. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy's cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

I wouldn't say Musashi is ordinary. But he is. That's what's extraordinary about him. He is not content to rely on whatever natural gifts he may have. Knowing he is ordinary, he is constantly trying to improve himself. No one appreciates the agonizing effort he's had to make. Now that his years of training have yielded such spectacular results, everybody's talking about his 'God-given talent.' That's how men who don't try very hard comfort themselves. ~ Eiji Yoshikawa

Becoming the opponent means you should put yourself in an opponent's place and think from the opponent's point of view. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

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. Do not let your spirit be influenced by your body, or your body be influenced by your spirit. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Do not act following customary beliefs. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

The purpose of today's training is to defeat yesterday's understanding. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

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

Musashi wondered how many people there were who on this night could say: "I was right. I did what I should have done. I have no regrets." For him, each resounding knell evoked a tremor of remorse. He could conjure up nothing but the things he had done wrong during the last year. Nor was it only the last year - the year before, and the year before that, all the years that had gone by had brought regrets. There had not been a single year devoid of them. Indeed, there had hardly been one day. ~ Eiji Yoshikawa

The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Do not think dishonestly ... Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters. Develop intuitive judgement 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

Fear resides in all things, and the heart of fear is the unexpected. Do not frighten your opponent with what is right before their eyes."
The Book of Five Rings, The Fire Chapter

The Way of Walking Alone

Do not turn your back on the various ways of this world.
Do not scheme for physical pleasure.
Consider yourself lightly; consider the world deeply.
Do not ever think in acquisitive terms.
Do not regret things about your personal life.
Do not envy another's good or evil.
Do not lament parting on any road whatsoever.
Do not complain or feel bitterly about yourself or others.
Have no heart for approaching the path of love.
Do not have preferences.
Do not harbor hopes for your own personal home.
Do not have a liking for delicious food for yourself.
Do not carry antiques handed down from generation to generation.
Do not fast so that it affects your physically.
While it's different with the military equipment, do not be fond of material things.
While on the Way, do not begrudge death.
Do not be intent on possessing valuables or a fief in old age.
Respect the gods and Buddhas, but do not depend on them.
Though you give up your life, do not give up your honor.
Never depart from the Way.

Shinmen Musashi
Twelfth day of the fifth month, Second Year of Shoho, 1645 ~ Shinmen Musashi

The warrior is different in that studying the Way of strategy is based on overcoming men ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Never depart from the way of martial arts. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Teaching people a large number of sword techniques254 is turning the way into a business of selling goods, making beginners believe that there is something profound in their training by impressing them with a variety of techniques. This attitude toward strategy must be avoided, because thinking that there is a variety of ways of cutting a man down is evidence of a disturbed mind. In the world, different ways of cutting a man down do not exist. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

If there is a Way involving the spirit of not being defeated, to help oneself and gain honour, it is the Way of Strategy. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

The important thing is to polish wisdom and the mind in great detail. If you sharpen wisdom, you will understand what is just and unjust in society and also the good and the evil of this world; then you will come to know all kinds of arts and you will tread different ways. In this manner, no one in this world will succeed in deceiving you. It is after this stage that you will arrive at the wisdom of strategy. The wisdom of strategy is entirely distinct. Even right in the middle of a battle where everything is in rapid movement, it is necessary to attain the most profound principle of strategy, which assures you an immovable mind. You must examine this well. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Under the sword lifted high, There is hell making you tremble. But go ahead, And you have the land of bliss. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

It is imperative to master the principles of the art of war and learn to be unmoved in mind even in the heat of the battle. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Why would you want to appear as one thing and be another? If you are a warrior then you are a warrior and if you are not a warrior then you are not a warrior. The Way of the warrior is the Way of the warrior. To be a warrior, look like a warrior and stand like a warrior. Do not be false to yourself. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Fourthly, the way of the artisan. The way of the carpenter is to become proficient in the use of his tools, first to lay his plans with true measure and then perform his work according to plan. Thus he passes through life. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Aspire to be like Mt. Fuji, with such a broad and solid foundation that the strongest earthquake cannot move you, and so tall that the greatest enterprises of common men seem insignificant from your lofty perspective. With your mind as high as Mt Fuji you can see all things clearly. And you can see all the forces that shape events; not just the things happening near to you. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Too much is the same as not enough. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Like a soldier, the carpenter sharpens his own tools. He carries his equipment in his tool box, and works under the direction of his foreman. He makes columns and girders with an axe, shapes floorboards and shelves with a plane, cuts fine openwork and bas reliefs accurately, giving as excellent a finish as his skill will allow. This is the craft of the carpenters. When the carpenter becomes skilled, he works efficiently and according to correct measures. When he has developed practical knowledge of all the skills of the craft, he can become a foreman himself. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

A warrior has no confusion in his mind ... This is true emptiness. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

You should not have any special fondness for a particular weapon, or anything else, for that matter. Too much is the same as not enough. Without imitating anyone else, you should have as much weaponry as suits you. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

There's a very famous Miyamoto Musashi quote. "Once you understand the way broadly, you can see it in all things." The idea is once you understand what excellence is all about, whether it's in painting, or carpentry or martial arts, that you see how that excellence manifests itself in any discipline. I think that all the different things that I do enhance all the other things that I do. ~ Joe Rogan

Get beyond love and grief: exist for the good of Man. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

As the innocent infant relies upon the mother for sustenance, so the innocent wanderer, following his native compassion and bliss, relies upon the natural intelligence of life to sustain him. There are various Ways. There is the Way of salvation by the law of Buddha, the Way of Confucius governing the Way of learning, the Way of healing as a doctor, as a poet teaching the Way of Waka, tea, archery, and many arts and skills. Each man practices as he feels inclined. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

If you wish to control others you must first control yourself ~ Miyamoto Musashi

What is called the spirit of the void is where there is nothing. It is not included in man's knowledge. With your spirit settled, accumulate practice day by day, and hour by hour. Polish the twofold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the twofold gaze perception and sight. When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void.Until you realise the true Way, whether in life or in common sense, you may think that things are correct and in order. However, if we look at things objectively, from the viewpoint of laws of the world, we see various doctrines departing from the true Way. Know well this spirit, and with forthrightness as the foundation and the true spirit as the Way. Enact strategy broadly, correctly and openly. Then you will come to think of things in a wide sense and, taking the void as the Way, you will see the Way as void. In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existance, principle has existance, the Way has existance, spirit is nothingness. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Musashi, who trained himself, became a master swordsman who was never defeated. ~ Kerr Cuhulain

Though you give up your life, do not give up your honor. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Strategy is the craft of the warrior. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Whatever the Way, the master of strategy does not appear fast ... .Of course, slowness is bad. Really skillful people never get out of time, and are always deliberate, and never appear busy. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

If you do not chase in directly toward the place where your opponents have gathered, you will not make progress. And, if you start thinking about the direction from which your opponents will come, your mind will be waiting and you will have the same result. Parry your opponents' rhythm, know where they will crumble, and you will have the victory. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Do nothing that is of no use ~ Miyamoto Musashi

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. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Do not let the body be dragged along by mind nor the mind be dragged along by the body ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Speed is not part of the true Way of strategy. Speed implies that things seem fast or slow, according to whether or not they are in rhythm. Whatever the Way, the master of strategy does not appear fast. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Fixed formation is bad. Study this well. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Respect the gods and buddhas, but never rely on them. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

The principle of my school is quite different. In the other schools, techniques are displayed like merchandise adorned with colors and flowers, so they can be turned into a way of making a living, which is not the true way. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Never stray from the Way. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

As you get the rhythm you discern how to win. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

In the construction of houses, choice of woods is made. Straight un-knotted timber of good appearance is used for the revealed pillars, straight timber with small defects is used for the inner pillars. Timbers of the finest appearance, even if a little weak, is used for the thresholds, lintels, doors, and sliding doors, and so on. Good strong timber, though it be gnarled and knotted, can always be used discreetly in construction. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

The Way is in training ... Do nothing which is not of value. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

In strategy it is necessary to treat training as part of normal life with your spirit unchanging. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is ... ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Also by training you will be able to freely control your own body, conquer men with your body, and with sufficient training you will be able to beat ten men with your spirit. When you have reached this point, will it not mean that you are invincible? ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Ferrying Across is like crossing the sea. When you traverse a strait or make a long crossing of the sea, for a distance of even forty or fifty ri, you use "ferrying." In passing through this human world, too, there are likely many places within the space of a generation that may be called Ferrying Across. On a ship's course, you know where these places are, you know the capacity of the ship and you know the weather patterns well. Though other ships may not venture out, you do so by responding to the conditions of the hour, relying on either a crosswind or a tail wind and, if the wind changes, putting in the oars for two or three ri. With your mind set on arriving at port, you board the ship and ferry across

You should think in terms of Ferrying Across when you pass through society and set your mind on some serious affair.

For the martial arts, Ferrying Across is essential even in the midst of battle. Here you take into account the level of your opponent, judge your own degree of expertise, and, using the principles of the martial arts, ferry across. It is the same for a good mariner ferrying across a sea route. ~ Musashi Miyomoto

Fixation is the way to death. Fluidity is the way to life. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Then you will come to see things in an all-encompassing sense and, taking the void as the Way, you will see the Way as void.

In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom exists, principle exists, the way exists. Spirit is Void. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

The spirit of defeating a man is the same for ten million men. The strategist makes small things into big things, like building a great Buddha from a one foot model. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

You can only fight the way you practice ~ Miyamoto Musashi

4 years earlier "This is 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, A Book of Five Rings. ~ Phillip W. Simpson

This path that you chose is a lone path. If you decide to live by both the sword and the ideal, you must decide to go alone. Our path of sacrifice, attainment, redemption and retribution is for you alone to be responsible for. ~ Musashi Miyomoto

There are many ways of understanding simple things, but generally the opposite is true for difficult ideas ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Second is the way of the merchant. The wine maker obtains his ingredients and puts them to use to make his living. The way of the merchant is always to live by taking profit. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

This Fudo Myo-o, whose name means "Immovable Wisdom King," is represented with a sword to cut through our ignorance and a rope to bind up our emotions ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Water adopts the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes a trickle and sometimes a wild sea. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

The halberd is inferior to the spear on the battlefield. With the spear you can take the initiative, the halberd is defensive. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

When you and your opponent are fighting and nothing is going right, nor is there progress, be of a mind to throw off your former intention and start entirely anew. Take on another rhythm and see your way to victory. With Renewal, whenever you think that you and your opponent are just grating along, you should change your mind on the spot and take the victory by using another tactic. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

If you learn indoor techniques, you will think narrowly and forget the true Way. Thus you will have difficulty in actual encounters. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Speed in the martial arts is not the True Way. Concerning speed, we say that something is fast or slow depending on whether it misses the rhythm of things. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

If a man chooses a certain Way and seems to have no particular talent for this Way, he can still become a master if he so chooses. By keeping at a particular form of study a man can attain perfection either in this life or the next (if a next life is believed in). ~ Miyamoto Musashi

The fact of the matter is that the world does not care about you or me, our hopes, our desires, or our dreams. And, the world of dreams, hopes, and desires that is constructed between our ears it is not necessarily a reflection of what is actually going on around us. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet ~ Miyamoto Musashi

The sword has to be more than a simple weapon; it has to be an answer to life's questions. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Immature strategy is the cause of grief". ~ Miyamoto Musashi

When you have attained the way of strategy there will be nothing that you cannot understand. You will see the way in everything. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

A bullet from a gun does not make a distinction between practice and combat. You are training to be one and the same way in your life ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Polish your wisdom: learn public justice, distinguish between good and evil, study the ways of different arts one by one. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

See to it that you temper yourself with one thousand days of practice, and refine yourself with ten thousand days of training. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

When you decide to attack, keep calm and dash in quickly, forestalling the enemy ... attack with a feeling of constantly crushing the enemy, from first to last. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

If you are not progressing along the true way, a slight twist in the mind can become a major twist. This must be pondered well. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Imitation is the surest form of flattery and failure. I am not interested with your talk about my ideas. I am more interested in your applying them to your life. If you do not, then you are essentially not in accord with your own mind. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

You're always with me. But that must also be some version of you that i made up inside my head ~ Takehiko Inoue

Thirdly, the gentleman warrior, carrying the weaponry of his way. The way of the warrior is to master the virtue of his weapons. If a gentleman dislikes strategy he will not appreciate the benefit of weaponry, so must he not have a little taste for this? ~ Miyamoto Musashi

In my school, no consideration is given to anything unreasonable; the heart of the matter is to use the power of the knowledge of martial arts to gain victory any way you can. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

You seem to be under the misconception that if you perform one brave deed, that alone makes you a samurai. Well it doesn't! you let that one act of loyalty convince you of your righteousness. The more convinced you became, the more harm you caused yourself and everyone else. ~ Eiji Yoshikawa

You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain ~ Miyamoto Musashi

In sum, it is not good to let the hand or the sword become fixed or frozen.87 A fixed hand is a dead hand; a hand that does not become fixed is alive. It is necessary to master this well. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

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

Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Ultimately...we're all alone in this world ~ Takehiko Inoue

Any man who wants to master the essence of my strategy must research diligently, training morning and evening. Thus can he polish his skill, become free from self, and realise extraordinary ability. He will come to possess miraculous power. ~ Miyamoto Musashi

To win any battle, you must fight as if you are already dead ~ Miyamoto Musashi

Crossing at a ford occurs often in a man's lifetime. It means setting sail even though your friends stay in harbour, knowing the route, knowing the soundness of your ship and the favour of the day. ~ Miyamoto Musashi