Miyamoto Musashi Quotes
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.
See to it that you temper yourself with one thousand days of practice, and refine yourself with ten thousand days of training.
Polish your wisdom: learn public justice, distinguish between good and evil, study the ways of different arts one by one.
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.
There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice.
People in this world look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment.
In all forms of strategy, it is necessary to maintain the combat stance in everyday life and to make your everyday stance your combat stance.
You win battles by knowing the enemy's timing, and using a timing which the enemy does not expect.
When your opponent is hurrying recklessly, you must act contrarily and keep calm. You must not be influenced by the opponent.
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.
The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions
Do not let the body be dragged along by mind nor the mind be dragged along by the body
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.
If the enemy thinks of the mountains, attack like the sea; and if he thinks of the sea, attack like the mountains.
If you learn indoor techniques, you will think narrowly and forget the true Way. Thus you will have difficulty in actual encounters.
If you do not look at things on a large scale, it will be difficult to master strategy.
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.
In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness.
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.
When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void.
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.
No man is invincible, and therefore no man can fully understand that which would make him invincible
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.
Cutting down the enemy is the way of strategy, and there is no need for many refinements of it.
When the enemy starts to collapse you must pursue him without the chance of letting go. If you fail to take advantage of your enemies collapse, they may recover.
In contests of strategy it is bad to be led about by the enemy. You must always be able to lead the enemy about.
Always return your weapon along the same path it traveled out on. In this way you can use it again without having to relocate and rethink our attitude.
