Samurai Quotes

“You can always die. It's living that takes real courage." - Himura Kenshin”
― Watsuki Nobuhiro

“Be a Samurai.
Because you just never know what's behind the freaking sky.”
― Laini Taylor, Dreams of Gods & Monsters

“No matter how much you hate or how much you suffer, you can't bring the dead back to life”
― Watsuki Nobuhiro

“Bushido is realized in the presence of death. This means choosing death whenever there is a choice between life and death. There is no other reasoning.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“Summer grasses,
All that remains
Of soldiers' dreams”
― Bashō

“Fighting isn't all there is to the Art of War. The men who think that way, and are satisfied to have food to eat and a place to sleep, are mere vagabonds. A serious student is much more concerned with training his mind and disciplining his spirit than with developing martial skills.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, Musashi

“I dreamt of worldly success once.”
― Miyamoto Musashi

“New eras don't come about because of swords, they're created by the people who wield them. ”
― Watsuki Nobuhiro

“A man who can't uphold his beliefs is pathetic dead or alive - Hajime Saito”
― Watsuki Nobuhiro

“In the Kamigata area, they have a sort of tiered lunchbox they use for a single day when flower viewing. Upon returning, they throw them away, trampling them underfoot. The end is important in all things.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai unless it is that of the tiger in the jungle... Perhaps...”
― Jean-Pierre Melville

“Ghost Dog: In the words of the ancients, one should make his decision within the space of seven breaths. It is a matter of being determined and having the spirit to break through to the other side. ”
― Jim Jarmusch

“Rehearse your death every morning and night. Only when you constantly live as though already a corpse (jōjū shinimi) will you be able to find freedom in the martial Way, and fulfill your duties without fault throughout your life.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“Blackthorne, beside the gates, was still turmoiled by his boundless joy at her reprieve and he remembered how his own will had been stretched that night of his near-seppuku, when he had had to get up as a man and walk home as a man unsupported, and became samurai. And he watched her, despising the need for this courage, yet understanding it, even honoring it.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Takamasa Saegusa: 'Seigen, a mere member of the Toudouza, had the effrontery to sully the sacred dueling ground. For that reason, our lord had already decided to subject him to tu-uchi before long. Cut off his head immediately, and stick it on a pike!'

Gennosuke could hardly believe his ears. Such an insult to Irako Seigen was unwarranted. It was pride. For Gennosuke, Irako Seigen was pride itself.

Takamasa Saegusa: 'Fujiki Gennosuke! It is the way of the samurai to take the head of the defeated enemy on the battleground. Do not hesitate! If you are a samurai, you must carry out the duty of a samurai!'

Samurai...

Saegusa, Lord of Izu, continued shouting, but Gennosuke did not attend. That word 'samurai' alone reverberated through his body.

If one aims at the juncture between the base of the skull and the spine, decapitation is not that difficult, but Gennosuke could muster no more strength than a baby. He grew pale and trembled with the strain. He could only hack with his sword as if he were sawing wood. He felt nauseated, as if his own cells one after another were being annihilated. But this...

Lord Tokugawa Tadanaga: 'I approve.'

Takamasa Saegusa: 'Fujiki Gennosuke, for this splendid action you have received words of thanks from our lord. As a sign of his exceptional approval, you shall be given employment at Sunpu Castle. This great debt will by no means be forgotten. From this day forward you must offer your life to our lord!'

Prostrating himself, Gennosuke vomited.”
― Takayuki Yamaguchi, シグルイ 15

“The rat scuttles, the big cat creeps, the monkey dashes,
The bat glides, the white crane soars, the lizard darts,
And the owl hoots
In the middle of the night.”
― Sandy Fussell, Owl Ninja

“The Way of the warrior (bushido) is to be found in dying.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“Per otto anni ho vagato,
senza accorgermi dell'avvicendarsi delle stagioni.
Sono solo una foglia che appassisce, secca, muore,
eppure l'albero rimane: modello di vita.”
― David Kirk, Child of Vengeance

“Intorno a lui, le tranquille risaie riflettevano le stelle come lastre di ossidiana, e lui smaniava dalla voglia di sfoderare la spada e squarciarle; tagliare le stelle e tagliare il cielo e l'universo, solo perché sapeva che era in grado di farlo.”
― David Kirk, Child of Vengeance

“Tu arma no es el acero, sino tu espíritu. Un samurái doblega con su voluntad al enemigo, ha vencido el combate antes de que las espadas se crucen. El acero sólo es la prolongación en tu mano de esa voluntad, la extensión del alma del guerrero.”
― David B. Gil, El guerrero a la sombra del cerezo

“I just decided something. Your instructor is hotter than any of the Archangels. For real. I just changed your contact name from Leigh to Lucky Bitch.”
― Aron Lewes, School For Spirits

“This better work. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have failed her. I don’t want to let her down.”
― Aron Lewes, School For Spirits

“Valley of the Damned (# 1 The 'Halla)

As she sat teary, another story arose,
Young and full of vigor hewed with manymanymany
years of repose.
“Comrades” she brightened, “listen again to my tale,
Of courage and power, and how evil can never prevail.

—Valkyrie Kari, Saint of the Blade
Chapter 15, Valley of the Damned

Footnote: In one form or another, everybody hears but very few listen. It is a lost art. Like developing a taste for classical art, music or fine wine, listening is a skill, a ‘taste’ to develop, an “acquired sound.”

Valley of the Damned et al.”
― douglas laurent

“I had a rather unfortunate tendency to tell the truth in a country where no one ever says what they mean. So now, I very accurately translate other people's lies.”
― Edward Zwick

“Loyalty was the most fundamental of samurai virtues. Without loyalty there was nothing. To Kawakami, who had looked at loyalty from every possible angle - examining loyalty was, after all, his occupation - it had become increasingly clear that the days of personal allegiance were coming to an end. Loyalty, in the future, must be to a cause, a principle, an idea, not a man or a clan.”
― Takashi Matsuoka

“The katana has been the weapon of the samurai since time immemorial. Consider the inner meaning.

Our blade is honed only on a single edge. Why? It is because with the dull edge against our flesh, the katana becomes our shield. This cannot happen with a two-edged sword, One day, in the midst of a melee, you may owe your life to the dull edge rather than the sharp one. Let this contrast remind you that attack and defense are one.”
― Takashi Matsuoka, Cloud of Sparrows

“Stories of military exploits were repeated almost before boys left their mother’s breast. Does a little booby cry for any ache? The mother scolds him in this fashion: “What a coward to cry for a trifling pain! What will you do when your arm is cut off in battle? What when you are called upon to commit hara-kiri?”
― Inazō Nitobe, Bushido - The Soul of Japan

“Nur durch das Verständnis der Wege der anderen ist es möglich, den eigenen Weg zu definieren und zu erkennen.”
― Musashi Miyomoto, A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“The Way of the Samurai is found in death.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“How to make his mother, whom he imagined to be the unhappiest person in the world, the happiest, was what drove him on.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa , Taiko