Top 160 Miyamoto Musashi Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “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.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Focus On Yourself Quotes, Effort Quotes, Empowerment Quotes, Self-Empowerment Quotes

2. “Do nothing that is of no use.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Focus Quotes, Efficiency Quotes, Quotes About Work, Purpose Quotes

3. “If you wish to control others you must first control yourself.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Short Quotes, Focus On Yourself Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Thought Provoking Quotes

4. “You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

5. “You can only fight the way you practice.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Preparation Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes, Quotes About Skills

6. “Step by step, walk the thousand-mile road.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Journey Quotes, Effort Quotes, Work Ethic Quotes

7. “It may seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Hard Work Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes, Firsts Quotes

8. “To win any battle, you must fight as if you are already dead.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Winning Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Struggle Quotes

9. “Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Winning Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Victory Quotes

10. “Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

11. “The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

12. “No Fear, No Hesitation, No Surprise, No Doubt.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Art Quotes, Doubt Quotes

13. “It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Space Quotes

14. “All men are the same except for their belief in their own selves, regardless of what others may think of them.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

15. “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

16. “If you do not control the enemy, the enemy will control you.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes

17. “In battle, if you make your opponent flinch, you have already won.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Struggle Quotes, Victory Quotes

18. “Respect the gods, without relying on their help.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

19. “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.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes

20. “The purpose of today’s training is to defeat yesterday’s understanding.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Understanding Quotes

21. “Do not waste time idling or thinking after you have set your goals.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

22. “If you know the way broadly you will see it in everything.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Warrior Quotes

23. “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

Featured in: Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes

24. “Fixation is the way to death. Fluidity is the way to life.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

25. “The way is in training.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Fighting Quotes, Practice Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes, Art Quotes

26. “Never stray from the Way.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Short Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Path Quotes

27. “Do not regret what you have done.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Warrior Quotes, Regret Quotes

28. “The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Strategy Quotes, Winning Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes

29. “Accept everything just the way it is.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Acceptance Quotes

30. “Know your enemy, know his sword.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Fighting Quotes

31. “In large-scale strategy, it is beneficial to strike at the corners of the enemy’s force. If the corners are overthrown, the spirit of the whole body will be overthrown.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Fighting Quotes

32. “True warriors are fierce because their training is fierce.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Preparation Quotes, Fighting Quotes

33. “Determine that today you will overcome your self of the day before, tomorrow you will win over those of lesser skill, and later you will win over those of greater skill.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Excellence Quotes, Goal Setting Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Progress Quotes

34. “Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Warrior Quotes

35. “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

36. “Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Quotes About War

37. “The path that leads to truth is littered with the bodies of the ignorant.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Path Quotes, Quotes About the Body

38. “Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Understanding Quotes

39. “As far as I’m concerned, I regret nothing.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Regret Quotes

40. “Whatever your determination or will power, it is foolish to try to change the nature of things. Things work the way they do because that is the way of things.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Determination Quotes

41. “You win battles by knowing the enemy’s timing, and using a timing which the enemy does not expect.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Strategy Quotes, Winning Quotes, Fighting Quotes, MMA Quotes

42. “In time, all things work to your advantage when you pursue them with an open heart.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

43. “There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Practice Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes

44. “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

Featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Military Quotes

45. “See to it that you temper yourself with one thousand days of practice, and refine yourself with ten thousand days of training.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Experience Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Practice Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes

46. “Unless you really understand others, you can hardly attain your own self-understanding.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Understanding Quotes

47. “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

Featured in: Quotes About War

48. “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.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Strong Quotes, Strategy Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes, Procrastination Quotes

49. “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

Featured in: Sleep Quotes

50. “Water adopts the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes a trickle and sometimes a wild sea.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Featured in: Quotes About Water, Quotes About the Sea