As everything in this world is but a sham, Death is the only sincerity.

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.

When confronted with two alternatives, life and death, one is to choose death without hesitation.

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.

One must know the so-called 'lesson of a downpour. A man, caught in a sudden rain en route, dashes along the road not to get wet or drenched. Once one takes it for granted that in rain he naturally gets wet, he can be in a tranquil frame of mind even when soaked to the skin. This lesson applies to everything.

Singlemindedness is all-powerful.