Bushido and Warrior Quotes on Life for Special Events and Christmas Cards

Warrior Quotes on Life and excerpts from the memoirs of History's Generals and others who lived by the sword.

"In a rat race its best to be a cat" - Sunforged

Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War

It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War

Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.
- Sun Tzu

In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them.
- Sun Tzu

"No leader should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no leader should fight a battle simply out of pique. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life. Hence the enlightened leader is heedful, and the good leader full of caution."
- Sun Tzu

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.
- General Douglas MacArthur

When the enemy advances, withdraw; when he stops, harass; when he tires, strike; when he retreats, pursue.
Mao Zedong

“By the Way of the warrior is meant death. The Way of the warrior is death. This means choosing death whenever there is a choice between life and death. It means nothing more than this. It means to see things through, being resolved" - Yamamoto Tsunetomo

“Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.” Napoleon

Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead.

-Yamamoto 'The Way of The Samurai"

Even if a samurai's head would be suddenly cut off, he should still be able to perform one more action with certainty. If one becomes like a revengeful ghost and shows great determination, though his head is cut off, he should not die. - Ghost Dog

Coming empty-handed, going empty-handed — that is human.
When you are born, where do you come from?
When you die, where do you go?
Life is like a floating cloud which appears.
Death is like a floating cloud which disappears.
The floating cloud itself originally does not exist.
Life and death, coming and going, are also like that.
But there is one thing which always remains clear.
It is pure and clear, not depending on life and death.
Then what is the one pure and clear thing?

-Seung Sahn

Inhale, exhale

Forward, back

Living, dying:

Arrows, let flown each to each

Meet midway and slice

The void in aimless flight --

Thus I return to the source. -sokko

Spitting blood

clears up reality

and dream alike.

-Sunao

Like dew drops

on a lotus leaf

I vanish.

-Senryu

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein

"Boy, That's a lot of dead white men!"

I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle.
Sitting Bull

"There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry."

"The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse."
— Carlos Castaneda

"All of us, whether or not we are warriors, have a cubic centimeter of chance that pops out in front of our eyes from time to time. The difference between an average man and a warrior is that the warrior is aware of this, and one of his tasks is to be alert, deliberately waiting, so that when his cubic centimeter pops out he has the necessary speed, the prowess, to pick it up."
— Carlos Castaneda