When a woman dislikes the man who is courting her, she parries him cleverly, like a willow in the wind.

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

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 world is a stone wall ... and they have put the stones so close together that there is not a single crack through which one may enter.

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

If a man wanted to put the entire universe in his breast, he couldn't do it with his chest stuck out.

Monks transgress the Laws of the Buddha, stir up the common people, store wealth and weapons, and spread rumors; under the guise of religion, they are nothing more than self-serving agitators.