Top 160 Miyamoto Musashi Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Polish your wisdom: learn public justice, distinguish between good and evil, study the ways of different arts one by one.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

52. “You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

53. “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.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

54. “Approach the enemy with the attitude of defeating him without delay.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

55. “Get beyond love and grief: exist for the good of Man.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

56. “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.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

57. “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.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

58. “Immature strategy is the cause of grief.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

59. “Do not let the body be dragged along by mind nor the mind be dragged along by the body.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

60. “One must make the warrior walk his everyday walk.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

61. “It is said the warrior’s is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways. Even if a man has no natural ability he can be a warrior by sticking assiduously to both divisions of the Way.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

62. “No man is invincible, and therefore no man can fully understand that which would make him invincible.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

63. “If you do not look at things on a large scale, it will be difficult to master strategy.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

64. “If the enemy stays spirited it is difficult to crush him.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

65. “Do not act following customary beliefs.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

66. “If you want to learn the craft of war, ponder over this book. The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread. You must practice constantly.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

67. “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

68. “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

69. “Fixed formation is bad. Study this well.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

70. “Pay attention even to life’s trifles.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

71. “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

72. “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

73. “To become the enemy, see yourself as the enemy of the enemy.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

74. “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.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

75. “In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

76. “Do not let your opponent see your spirit.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

77. “With your spirit open and unconstricted, look at things from a high point of view.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

78. “When you cannot be deceived by men you will have realised the wisdom of strategy.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

79. “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 as yet undrawn.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

80. “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...”

— Miyamoto Musashi

81. “By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

82. “If you learn indoor techniques, you will think narrowly and forget the true Way. Thus you will have difficulty in actual encounters.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

83. “All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

84. “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

85. “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

86. “To know ten thousand things, know one well.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

87. “The Way of the warrior does not include other ways, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, certain traditions, artistic accomplishments, and dancing. But even though these are not part of the Way, if you know the Way broadly, you will see it in everything.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

88. “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.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

89. “Cutting down the enemy is the way of strategy, and there is no need for many refinements of it.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

90. “To cut and slash are two different things. Cutting, whatever form of cutting it is, is decisive, with a resolute spirit. Slashing is nothing more than touching the enemy.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

91. “There are many ways of understanding simple things, but generally the opposite is true for difficult ideas.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

92. “In contests of strategy it is bad to be led about by the enemy. You must always be able to lead the enemy about.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

93. “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

94. “When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

95. “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.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

96. “The warrior is different in that studying the Way of strategy is based on overcoming men.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

97. “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.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

98. “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

99. “Too much is the same as not enough.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

100. “Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is...”

— Miyamoto Musashi