The person who practices an art is an artist, not a samurai, and one should have the intention of being called a samurai.

Human life is truly a short affair. It is better to live doing the things that you like.

To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not.

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

A warrior is worthless unless he rises above others and stands strong in the midst of a storm.

There is one transcending level, and this is the most excellent of all. This person is aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way and never thinks of himself as having finished.

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.