Best 114 quotes of Miyamoto Musashi on MyQuotes

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

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.

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.

You win battles by knowing the enemy's timing, and using a timing which the enemy does not expect.

As you get the rhythm you discern how to win.

Becoming the opponent means you should put yourself in an opponent's place and think from the opponent's point of view.

Being like a rock wall" is when a master of martial arts suddenly becomes like a rock wall, inaccessible to anything at all, immovable.

If a man chooses a certain Way and seems to have no particular talent for this Way, he can still become a master if he so chooses. By keeping at a particular form of study a man can attain perfection either in this life or the next (if a next life is believed in).

In my school, no consideration is given to anything unreasonable; the heart of the matter is to use the power of the knowledge of martial arts to gain victory any way you can.

Respect the gods and Buddhas, but do not depend on them.

There is even rhythm in being empty.

The sword has to be more than a simple weapon; it has to be an answer to life's questions.

What is essential is to suddenly make a move totally unexpected by the opponent, pick up on the advantage of fright, and seize the victory right then and there.

Why would you want to appear as one thing and be another? If you are a warrior then you are a warrior and if you are not a warrior then you are not a warrior. The Way of the warrior is the Way of the warrior. To be a warrior, look like a warrior and stand like a warrior. Do not be false to yourself.