Basho

“Long before they had ever met, I think this destiny awaited them. They were not like ships passing in the night. It wasn't like they didn't understand each other. They understood each other better than anyone else, and each was focused solely on the other.”
― Gen Urobuchi, 監視官 常守朱 1 [Kanshikan Akane Tsunemori]

“He'd been a successful soldier, as these things went; he'd generally been on the winning side, and had killed more of the enemy by good if dull tactics than his own men by bad but exciting ones.”
― Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

“They plot, they plot, sleeping or afoot they never let up.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow

“Like a soldier, the carpenter sharpens his own tools. He carries his equipment in his tool box, and works under the direction of his foreman. He makes columns and girders with an axe, shapes floorboards and shelves with a plane, cuts fine openwork and bas reliefs accurately, giving as excellent a finish as his skill will allow. This is the craft of the carpenters. When the carpenter becomes skilled, he works efficiently and according to correct measures. When he has developed practical knowledge of all the skills of the craft, he can become a foreman himself.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy