Top 50 Eiji Yoshikawa Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I want to dedicate myself to training and discipline. I want to spend every moment of every day working to improve myself.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

2. “The summit is believed to be the object of the climb. But its true object – the joy of living – is not in the peak itself, but in the adversities encountered on the way up.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

3. “Great character is forged through hardships.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

4. “Enemies were teachers in disguise.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

5. “Sincerity, even if it speaks with a stutter, will sound eloquent when inspired.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

6. “Every act is an expression of one’s self.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

7. “Not only must a warrior be strong with his bow, but he must have a heart full of pity for all living creatures.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

8. “It is easy to crush an enemy outside oneself but impossible to defeat an enemy within.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

9. “The bitter winds in February were sometimes called the First East Winds, but the longing for spring somehow made them seem more piercing.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

10. “Hold on to your life and make it honest and brave.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

11. “Don’t yield! Keep up your courage! The same sun looks down on all of us!”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

12. “Instead of wanting to be like this or that, make yourself into a silent, immovable giant. That’s what the mountain is. Don’t waste your time trying to impress people. If you become the sort of man people can respect, they’ll respect you, without your doing anything.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

13. “Think what you like. There are people who die by remaining alive and others who gain life by dying.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

14. “When a woman dislikes the man who is courting her, she parries him cleverly, like a willow in the wind.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

15. “Manusia ingin percaya bahwa mereka hidup dan bertindak berdasarkan kemauan mereka sendiri, namun pada kenyataannya mereka hanya dipaksa oleh keadaan.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

16. “Fighting isn’t all there is to the Art of War. The men who think that way, and are satisfied to have food to eat and a place to sleep, are mere vagabonds. A serious student is much more concerned with training his mind and disciplining his spirit than with developing martial skills.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

17. “The world is always full of the sound of waves. The little fishes, abandoning themselves to the waves, dance and sing, and play, but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it depth?”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

18. “It’s interesting, isn’t it? Being in the world.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

19. “It’s no good to want to win still more when you have already won.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

20. “Love was like a toothache.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

21. “The line between life and death is not thicker than an eyelid.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

22. “Everything in the world is good. But if you’re not careful, even good things can turn against you.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

23. “Danger was the grindstone on which the swordsman whetted his spirit. Enemies were teachers in disguise.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

24. “The truth of the scholar, alone in his study, does not always accord with what the world at large considers to be true.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

25. “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

26. “Kalau orang muda tidak dapat menggantungkan cita-cita besar dalam jiwanya, siapa lagi yang dapat?”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

27. “The greatest happiness of life was to stand at the difficult border between success and failure.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

28. “There’s nothing more frightening than a half-baked do-gooder who knows nothing of the world but takes it upon himself to tell the world what’s good for it.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

29. “Those who love seek a philosophy and, because of this, are fond of solitude.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

30. “True courage knows fear. It knows how to fear that which should be feared. Honest people value life passionately, they hang on to it like a precious jewel. And they pick the right time and place to surrender it, to die with dignity.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

31. “If the young cannot harbor great dreams in their souls, who can?”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

32. “I want to lead an important life. I want to do it because I was born a human being.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

33. “When Takuan had sentenced him to confinement, he had said, “You may read as much as you want. A famous priest of ancient times once said, ‘I become immersed in the sacred scriptures and read thousands of volumes. When I come away, I find that my heart sees more than before.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

34. “There’s not much benefit in attacking an empty house.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

35. “Monks transgress the Laws of the Buddha, stir up the common people, store wealth and weapons, and spread rumors; under the guise of religion, they are nothing more than self-serving agitators.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

36. “It does happen, of course, that the priesthood has been on bad terms with womankind for some three thousand years. You see, Buddhism teaches that women are evil. Fiends. Messengers of hell. I’ve spent years immersed in the scriptures, so it’s no accident that you and I fight all the time.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

37. “Oh, you crows! Feast away! What a spread! Soup straight from the eye sockets! And thick red sake! But don’t have too much Or you’ll surely get drunk.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

38. “A wise man who cultivates wisdom may sometimes drown in it.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

39. “If you trust me enough to tell me a secret, I certainly promise to keep it. Please speak freely, on any subject.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

40. “Take a good look at the times. It is inevitable that greedy men, who close their eyes and obstruct the tide of the times with their selfishness, will be burned up together with the fallen leaves.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

41. “Beyond the shadow of a doubt, food was more important than a woman’s suffering.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

42. “If you become self-conscious about the proper way to drink, you won’t enjoy the tea. When you use a sword, you can’t let your body become too tense. That would break the harmony between the sword and your spirit. Isn’t that right?”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

43. “I’m still an amateur. But the world’s full of people who don’t seem to be as good as I am.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

44. “To the courtiers flushed with wine, life was pleasure, and pleasure life.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

45. “You’re safer out in the open than you are crouching in the woodshed listening for footsteps and going crazy.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

46. “The young man rushed toward them. “Stand and fight!” he was shouting. “Is running away the Yoshioka version of the Art of War? I personally don’t want to kill you, but my Drying Pole’s still thirsty. The least you can do, cowards that you are, is leave your heads behind.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

47. “It’s not just my body. I’m cold inside. Not disciplined properly. That’s what it is. I still long to cling to warm flesh, like a baby, and I give in too quickly to sentimentality. Because I’m alone, I feel sorry for myself and envy people who have nice warm houses. At heart, I’m base and mean! Why can’t I be thankful for independence and freedom to go where I choose? Why can’t I hold on to my ideals and my pride?”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

48. “If a man wanted to put the entire universe in his breast, he couldn’t do it with his chest stuck out.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

49. “To him, any place could serve as home – more than that: wherever he happened to be was the universe.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa

50. “Still, in a fight like that, you never know. There’s a superhuman element involved. All warriors have to face it; winning or losing is partly a matter of luck.”

— Eiji Yoshikawa