More Quotes by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not.
If you are slain in battle, you should be resolved to have your corpse facing the enemy.
Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else.
The deepest love is often hidden.
It is a principle of the art of war that one should simply lay down his life and strike. If one's opponent also does the same, it is a even match. Defeating one's opponent is then a matter of faith and destiny.
There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything.
A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death.
Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead
There is nothing we should be quite so grateful for as the last line of the poem that goes, 'When your own heart asks.
Light matters should be dealt with seriously. Serious matters should be dealt with lightly.
