Musash Miyamoto quotes are from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy by Musashi Miyamoto and other sources.
“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, A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy
“There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“The path that leads to truth is littered with the bodies of the ignorant.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Do nothing that is of no use.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” ~ Musashi Miyamoto
“The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“If you wish to control others you must first control yourself.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“Control your anger. If you hold anger toward others, they have control over you. Your opponent can dominate and defeat you if you allow him to get you irritated.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“From one thing, know ten thousand things.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“You can only fight the way you practice.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“In battle, if you you make your opponent flinch, you have already won.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Get beyond love and grief: exist for the good of Man.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Determine that today you will overcome yourself of the day before, tomorrow you will win over those of lesser skill, and later you will win over those of greater skill.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Do not regret what you have done.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“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.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“If you do not control the enemy, the enemy will control you.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“All man are the same except for their belief in their own selves, regardless of what others may think of them.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy’s useful actions but allow his useless actions.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“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.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“To know ten thousand things, know one well.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honor.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Know your enemy, know his sword.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“To become the enemy, see yourself as the enemy of the enemy.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“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.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“It may seem difficult at first but everything is difficult at first.” ~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“No man is invincible, and therefore no man can fully understand that which would make him invincible.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“It is difficult to realize the true Way just through sword-fencing. Know the smallest things and the biggest things, the shallowest things and the deepest things.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Under the sword lifted high, There is hell making you tremble. But go ahead, And you have the land of bliss.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Polish your wisdom: learn public justice, distinguish between good and evil, study the ways of different arts one by one.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“When in a fight to the death, one wants to employ all one’s weapons to the utmost. I must say that to die with one’s sword still sheathed is most regrettable.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Never stray from the Way.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“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.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Whatever the Way, the master of strategy does not appear fast.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“Do nothing which is of no use.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“I dreamt of worldly success once.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Step by step walk the thousand-mile road.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Become acquainted with every art.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“If you know the way broadly you will see it in everything.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“When your opponent is hurrying recklessly, you must act contrarily and keep.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is …”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“A thousand days of training to develop, ten thousand days of training to polish. You must examine all this well.”
~ The Complete Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.”
“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.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Tubuhku boleh menjadi debu, tapi aku akan tetap hidup.”
“You should not have a favorite weapon. To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“Immature strategy is the cause of grief.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“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.”
~ The Complete Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“When you attack the enemy, your spirit must go to the extent of pulling the stakes out of a wall and using them as spears and halberds.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“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.”
~ The Complete Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Do not let the body be dragged along by mind nor be dragged along by the body.”
~ Musashi Miyamoto
“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.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“It is necessary to know ten thousand things by knowing one well. If you are to practice the way of strategy, nothing must escape your eyes. Reflect well on this.”
~ The Complete Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“It is said the warrior’s is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him. More than anything, you must be thinking of carrying your movement through to cutting him.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Though you give up your life, do not give up your honor.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“You win battles with the timing in the Void born of the timing of cunning by knowing the enemies’ timing, and thus using a timing which the enemy does not expect.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Guard. It is in this sense that I recommend the guard without a guard. Whatever the situation is, you hold the sword so that you can slash your opponent.”
~ The Complete Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“The essential is to think that anything you are doing has to become the occasion for slashing. You must examine this well.”
~ The Complete Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“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.”
~ The Complete Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“This is a 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.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“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.” Musashi Miyamoto
“Know that there are no other forms apart from these five in the School of the Two Swords.”
~ The Complete Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Observe their attacking order, and go to meet first those who attack first.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Respect the gods and Buddhas, but do not depend on them.”
~ A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Musashi Miyamoto
“In strategy it is necessary to treat training as part of normal life with your spirit unchanging.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“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.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
“Immature strategy is the cause of grief.” That was a true saying.”
~ The Book of Five Rings, Musashi Miyamoto
