Quotes from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“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, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“Do nothing that is of no use”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“If you wish to control others you must first control yourself”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“from one thing, know ten thousand things”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“You can only fight the way you practice”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“Get beyond love and grief: exist for the good of Man.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“Do not regret what you have done”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy's cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“All man are the same except for their belief in their own selves, regardless of what others may think of them”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“If you do not control the enemy, the enemy will control you”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“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, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“You should not have any special fondness for a particular weapon, or anything else, for that matter. Too much is the same as not enough. Without imitating anyone else, you should have as much weaponry as suits you.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“To know ten thousand things, know one well”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“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.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“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, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“To become the enemy, see yourself as the enemy of the enemy”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“Know your enemy, know his sword.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“When you decide to attack, keep calm and dash in quickly, forestalling the enemy...attack with a feeling of constantly crushing the enemy, from first to last.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“No man is invincible, and therefore no man can fully understand that which would make him invincible”
― Miyamoto Musashi, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“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, quote from A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

About the author

Popular quotes

“There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.”
― Walt Whitman, quote from Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition

“The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"
"Come, we shall have some fun now!", thought Alice. "I'm glad they've begun asking riddles - I believe I can guess that," she added aloud.
"Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?" said the March Hare.
"Exactly so," said Alice.
"Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.
"I do," Alice hastily replied; "At least - at least I mean what I say - that's the same thing, you know."
"Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. "Why, you might just as well said that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!".
"You might just as well say," added the March Hare, "that "I like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!".
"You might just as well say," added the Dormouse, which seemed to be talking in its sleep, "that "I breath when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breath"!".
"It is the same thing with you," said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, which wasn't much.”
― Lewis Carroll, quote from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories

“Der zweite russische Gast ist ein junger Kerl, siebzehn Jahre alt, Partisan gewesen und dann mit der kämpfenden Truppe westwärts gezogen. Er sieht mich mit streng gerunzelter Stirn an und fordert mich auf, zu übersetzen, daß deutsche Militärs in seinem Heimatdorf Kinder erstochen hätten und Kinder bei den Füßen gefaßt, um ihre Schädel an der Mauer zu zertrümmern. Ehe ich das übersetze frage ich: ‘Gehört? Oder selbst mit angesehen?’ Er, streng, vor sich hin: ‘Zweimal selber gesehen.’ Ich übersetze.

‘Glaub ich nicht’, erwidert Frau Lehmann. ‘Unsere Soldaten? Mein Mann? Niemals!’ Und Fräulein Behn fordert mich auf, den Russen zu fragen, ob die Betreffenden ‘Vogel hier’ (am Arm) oder ‘Vogel da’ (an der Mütze) hatten, das heißt, ob sie Wehrmacht waren oder SS. Der Russe begreift den Sinn der Frage sofort: den Unterschied zu machen, haben sie wohl in den russischen Dörfern gelernt. Doch selbst wenn es, wie in diesem Fall und ähnlichen Fällen, SS-Leute waren: Jetzt werden unsere Sieger sie zum ‘Volk’ rechnen und uns allen diese Rechnung vorhalten. Schon geht solches Gerede; ich hörte an der Pumpe mehrfach den Satz: ‘Unsere haben’s wohl drüben nicht viel anders gemacht.’

Schweigen. Wir starren alle vor uns hin. Ein Schatten steht im Raum. Das Baby weiß nichts davon. Es beißt in den fremden Zeigefinger, es kräht und quietscht. Mir steigt ein Klumpen in die Kehle. Das Kind kommt mir wie ein Wunder vor, rosa und weiß mit Kupferlöckchen blüht es in diesem wüsten, halb ausgeräumten Zimmer, zwischen uns verdreckten Menschen. Auf einmal weiß ich, warum es den Krieger zum Kindchen zieht.”
― quote from A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary

“It looked like it could use a drink," his father mumbled. "I gave it some gin." "Spirits”
― Megan Derr, quote from Tournament of Losers

“The sun was already long past the spire when Garrick purchased a mug of coffee from his regular man on the tip of Oxford Street. But his palate had been educated by 21st century coffee, and he judged this mug as bilge water not fit for the Irish.”
― Eoin Colfer, quote from The Reluctant Assassin

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.