Miyamoto Musashi Quotes

Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer, artist, and rōnin (1584–1645)

Miyamoto Musashi 宮本武蔵 (c. 1584 – 13 June 1645) was a famous Japanese swordsman, believed to have been one of the most skilled swordsmen in history. He founded the Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu, or Nito Ryu style of swordsmanship and wrote Go Rin No Sho (The Book of Five Rings) a classic work on strategy, tactics, and philosophy.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pen Names: 新免玄信 • 宮本二天

Alternative Names: Niten • Miyamoto Musashi Niten • Miyamoto Niten • Musashi • Takemura Musashi • Shinmen Takezō • Musashi Masana • Shinmen Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara no Harunobu • Shimmen Musashi • Musachi • Musashi Miyamoto • Miyamoto Mushashi

From Wikidata (CC0)

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.

La sabiduría es existencia.
El principio es existencia.
El camino es existencia.
La mente es vacío.

Fragmento de: Miyamoto Musashi. “The Book of Five Rings”. iBooks.

The five attitudes are: Upper, Middle, Lower, Right Side, and Left Side. These are the give.

La palabra carpintero se escribe con caracteres que significan «gran pericia» o «gran maestro». Puesto que la ciencia de las artes marciales implica una gran habilidad y una planificación con maestría, la describo en términos comparativos a la carpintería.

when you accept things as they are, it allows you to step into reality. The veil of fantasy that most of us shield ourselves with is torn into pieces and we can deal with things as they actually are, good, bad, or indifferent. The fact of the matter is that the world does not care about you or me, our hopes, our desires, or our dreams. And, the world of dreams, hopes, and desires that is constructed between our ears it is not necessarily a reflection of what is actually going on around us.

"I believe this "crossing at a ford" occurs often in 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."

Antiguamente éstos se llamaban tachi y katana, o el gran sable y el sable; actualmente se llaman katana y wakizashi;

The Way of the warrior is to master the virtue of his weapons.

In olden times strategy was listed among the Ten Abilities and Seven Arts as a beneficial practice.

Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.

If you master the principles of sword-fencing, when you freely beat one man, you beat any man in the world. 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. I cannot write in detail how this is done. The principle of strategy is having one thing, to know ten thousand things.

It is difficult to know yourself if you do not know others.

It is said the warrior’s is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste

What is called the spirit of the void is where there is nothing. It is not included in man’s knowledge. Of course the void is nothingness. By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist. That is the void.

Do not pursue the taste of good food.