Love was like a toothache.

it is easy to surpass a predecessor, but difficult to avoid being surpassed by a successor.

There's not much benefit in attacking an empty house.

Think what you like. There are people who die by remaining alive and others who gain life by dying.

I wouldn't say Musashi is ordinary. But he is. That's what's extraordinary about him. He is not content to rely on whatever natural gifts he may have. Knowing he is ordinary, he is constantly trying to improve himself. No one appreciates the agonizing effort he's had to make. Now that his years of training have yielded such spectacular results, everybody's talking about his 'God-given talent.' That's how men who don't try very hard comfort themselves.

The greatest happiness of life was to stand at the difficult border between success and failure.

The line between life and death is not thicker than an eyelid.