Quotes from Musashi

“It is easy to crush an enemy outside oneself but impossible to defeat an enemy within.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“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, quote from Musashi

“...you're going to find people from all over the country, everyone hungry for money and position. You won't make a name for yourself just doing what the next man does. You'll have to distinguish yourself in some way.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“I want to lead an important life. I want to do it because I was born a human being.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“Hold on to your life and make it honest and brave.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“Keberanian sejati mengenal rasa takut
Dia tahu bagaimana takut kepada apa yang harus ditakuti
Orang-orang yang tulus menghargai hidup dengan penuh kecintaan
Mereka mendekapnya sebagai permata yang berharga
Dan mereka memilih waktu serta tempat yang tepat untuk menyerahkannya
Mati dengan penuh kemuliaan”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“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, quote from Musashi

“it is easy to surpass a predecessor, but difficult to avoid being surpassed by a successor.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“He saw the white paper as the great universe of nonexistence. A single stroke would give rise to existence within it. He could evoke rain or wind at will, but whatever he drew, his heart would remain in the painting forever. If his heart was tainted, the picture would be tainted; if his heart was listless, so would the picture be. If he attempted to make a show of his craftsmanship, it could not be concealed. Men’s bodies fade away, but ink lives on. The image of his heart would continue to breathe after he himself was gone.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“You seem to be under the misconception that if you perform one brave deed, that alone makes you a samurai. Well it doesn't! you let that one act of loyalty convince you of your righteousness. The more convinced you became, the more harm you caused yourself and everyone else.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“Think what you like. There are people who die by remaining alive and others who gain life by dying.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“Orang yang benar-benar berani adalah yang mencintai hidup dan mendambakannya sebagai harta kekayaan yang sekali hilang takkan dapat ditemukan kembali.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“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, quote from Musashi

“Beyond the shadow of a doubt, food was more important than a woman's suffering. ”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“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, quote from Musashi

“If the talents I was born with are the right ones, I may someday achieve my goal. If not, I may go through life being as stupid as I am now.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“People were born with two hands; why not use both of them? As it was, swordsmen fought with only one sword, and often one hand. This made sense, so long as everybody followed the same practice. But if one combatant were to employ two swords at once, what chance would an opponent using only one have of winning?”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“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.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“Kalau orang muda tidak dapat menggantungkan cita-cita besar dalam jiwanya, siapa lagi yang dapat?”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“On the eleventh day, it finally stopped raining. Musashi chafed to be out in the open, but it was another week before they were able to return to work under a bright sun. The field they had so arduously carved out of the wilderness had disappeared without a trace; in its place were rocks, and a river where none had been before. The water seemed to mock them just as the villagers had. Iori, seeing no way to reclaim their loss, looked up and said, “This place is beyond hope. Let’s look for better land somewhere else.” “No,” Musashi said firmly. “With the water drained off, this would make excellent farmland. I examined the location from every angle before I chose it.” “What if we have another heavy rain?” “We’ll fix it so the water doesn’t come this way. We’ll lay a dam from here all the way to that hill over there.” ‘That’s an awful lot of work.” “You seem to forget that this is our dōjō. I’m not giving up a foot of this land until I see barley growing on it.” Musashi carried on his stubborn struggle throughout the winter, into the second month of the new year. It took several weeks of strenuous labor to dig ditches, drain the water off, pile dirt for a dike and then cover it with heavy rocks. Three weeks later everything was again washed away. “Look,” Iori said, “we’re wasting our energy on something impossible. Is that the Way of the Sword?” The question struck close to the bone, but Musashi would not give in. Only a month passed before the next disaster, a heavy snowfall followed by a quick thaw. Iori, on his return from trips to the temple for food, inevitably wore a long face, for the people there rode him mercilessly about Musashi’s failure. And finally Musashi himself began to lose heart. For two full days and on into a third, he sat silently brooding and staring at his field. Then it dawned on him suddenly. Unconsciously, he had been trying to create a neat, square field like those common in other parts of the Kanto Plain, but this was not what the terrain called for. Here, despite the general flatness, there were slight variations in the lay of the land and the quality of the soil that argued for an irregular shape. “What a fool I’ve been,” he exclaimed aloud. “I tried to make the water flow where I thought it should and force the dirt to stay where I thought it ought to be. But it didn’t work. How could it? Water’s water, dirt’s dirt. I can’t change their nature. What I’ve got to do is learn to be a servant to the water and a protector of the land.” In his own way, he had submitted to the attitude of the peasants. On that day he became nature’s manservant. He ceased trying to impose his will on nature and let nature lead the way, while at the same time seeking out possibilities beyond the grasp of other inhabitants of the plain. The snow came again, and another thaw; the muddy water oozed slowly over the plain. But Musashi had had time to work out his new approach, and his field remained intact. “The same rules must apply to governing people,” he said to himself. In his notebook, he wrote: “Do not attempt to oppose the way of the universe. But first make sure you know the way of the universe.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“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, quote from Musashi

“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, quote from Musashi

“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, quote from Musashi

“If the young cannot harbor great dreams in their souls, who can?”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“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. He has to learn about all sorts of things—geography, irrigation, the people’s feelings, their manners and customs, their relationship with the lord of their territory. He wants to know what goes on inside the castle, not just what goes on outside it. He wants, essentially, to go everywhere he can and learn everything he can.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“Kita manusia ini semua melihat satu bulan saja, tetapi banyak jalan yang dapat kita tempuh untuk sampai ke puncak yang terdekat dengannya. Kadang-kadang kalau kita tersesat, kita memutuskan untuk mencoba jalan orang lain, tapi tujuan akhirnya menemukan penyempurnaan hidup.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“Diri seseorang itu adalah dasar segalanya. Setiap tindakan adalah ungkapan diri seseorang. Orang yang tidak kenal dirinya tak dapat melakukan apa pun buat orang lain.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

“kalau agama itu ajaran sehat, kita tak akan membutuhkan nabi-nabi untuk menyampaikannya kepada kita.
-Takuan”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, quote from Musashi

About the author

Popular quotes

“One day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other ‘My little computer said such a funny thing this morning!’ ” he japed in 1951.”
― Walter Isaacson, quote from The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

“One of those useless machines they used to make,” he finally began, “was called an MRI.”
― Greg Keyes, quote from Interstellar

“Some judicial officials began to notice the unusual frequency of deaths among the inmates of institutions and some prosecutors even considered asking the Gestapo to investigate the killings. However, none went so far as Lothar Kreyssig, a judge in Brandenburg who specialized in matters of wardship and adoption. A war veteran and a member of the Confessing Church, Kreyssig became suspicious when psychiatric patients who were wards of the court and therefore fell within his area of responsibility began to be transferred from their institutions and were shortly afterwards reported to have died suddenly. Kreyssig wrote Justice Minister Gortner to protest against what he described as an illegal and immoral programme of mass murder. The Justice Minister's response to this and other, similar, queries from local law officers was to try once more to draft a law giving effective immunity to the murderers, only to have it vetoed by Hitler on the grounds that the publicity would give dangerous ammunition to Allied propaganda. Late in April 1941 the Justice Ministry organized a briefing of senior judges and prosecutors by Brack and Heyde, to try to set their minds at rest. In the meantime, Kreyssig was summoned to an interview with the Ministry's top official, State Secretary Roland Freisler, who informed him that the killings were being carried out on Hitler's orders. Refusing to accept this explanation, Kreyssig wrote to the directors of psychiatric hospitals in his district informing them that transfers to killing centres were illegal, and threatening legal action should they transport any of their patients who came within his jurisdiction. It was his legal duty, he proclaimed, to protect the interests and indeed the lives of his charges. A further interview with Gortner failed to persuade him that he was wrong to do this, and he was compulsorily retired in December 1941.”
― Richard J. Evans, quote from The Third Reich at War

“Si piensas, entenderás que la culpa, los errores, las decepciones y las desgracias son privilegios de una vida consciente. ¡La muerte no tiene esos privilegios!”
― Augusto Cury, quote from The Dreamseller: The Calling

“engine, picked up the pages, ripped off the rubber band, and”
― David Baldacci, quote from First Family

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.