Singlemindedness is all-powerful.

You cannot tell whether a person is good or bad by his vicissitudes in life. Good and bad fortune are matters of fate.

When something out of the ordinary happens, it is ridiculous to say that it is a mystery or a portent of something to come... the mystery is created in (their) minds, and by waiting for disaster, it is from their very minds that it occurs.

There is not a man who does not get senile by the time he reaches sixty. And when one thinks that he will not be senile, he is already so.

If a retainer will just think about what he is to do for the day at hand, he will be able to do anything. If it is a single day's work, one should be able to put up with it. Tomorrow, too is but a single day.

I have found that the Way of the samurai is death. This means that when you are compelled to choose between life and death, you must quickly choose death.

Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth. Things appear far beyond one's power, because one cannot set his heart on any arduous project due to want of strong will.