When one has made a decision to kill a person, even if it will be very difficult to succeed by advancing straight ahead, it will not do to think about going at it in a long roundabout way. One's heart may slacken, he may miss his chance, and by and large there will be no success. The Way of the Samurai is one of immediacy, and it is best to dash in headlong.

There is nothing we should be quite so grateful for as the last line of the poem that goes, 'When your own heart asks.

Continue to spur a running horse.

Light matters should be dealt with seriously. Serious matters should be dealt with lightly.

What is called generosity is really compassion. In the Shin'ei it is written "Seen from the eye of compassion, there is noone to be disliked. One who has sinned is to be pitied all the more." There is no limit to the breadth and depth of ones heart. There is room enough for all. That we still worship the sages of the three ancient kingdoms is because their compassion reaches us yet today.

By bringing shame to a person, how could one expect to make him a better man?

Purity is something that cannot be attained except by piling effort upon effort.