Fortune resists half-hearted prayers.
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 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.
Having only wisdom and talent is the lowest tier of usefulness.
It is said that what is called "the spirit of an age" is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. For this reason, although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation.
Covetousness, anger and foolishness are things to sort out well. When bad things happen in the world, if you look at them comparatively, they are not unrelated to these three things.
Looking comparatively at the good things, you will see that they are not excluded from wisdom, humanity and bravery.
La guerre, la guerre, everything la guerre. That's how I grew up. So for me, it's real. It's not something in the past.
You have to think before speaking. That's a quality I'm continuously evolving. For some reason, it seems like I'm bumping my head into the wall a little bit too many times.
I felt myself getting whiter. . . What does it mean to become white? How does it feel to see Death in the flesh, come to gather you in?
In 1882 I was in Vienna, where I met an American whom I had known in the States. He said: 'Hang your chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility. '