Warrior Wisdom Quotes is one of the best collections of warrior, martial art, and military quotes on the Internet.
“The path of the Warrior is lifelong, and mastery is often simply staying on the path.” – Richard Strozzi Heckler, In Search of the Warrior Spirit
“My life is simple, my food is plain, and my quarters are uncluttered. In all things, I have sought clarity. I face the troubles and problems of life and death willingly. Virtue, integrity and courage are my priorities. I can be approached, but never pushed; befriended but never coerced; killed but never shamed.” – Admiral Yi Sun-shin, Last letter to an old friend.
Warrior Wisdom by Sammy Franco at Amazon.
- Be loyal to your king.
- Be obedient to your parents.
- Be honorable to your friends.
- Never retreat in battle.
- Make a just kill.
– Hwarang Warrior’s Code of Conduct
“I love the name of honor more than I fear death.” – Julius Caesar
“Forward, even with only a spear.” – Samurai Proverb
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” – Winston Churchill
“I dislike death; however, there are some things I dislike more than death. Therefore, there are times when I will not avoid danger.” – Mencius
“One obtains everything from men by appealing to their sense of honor.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Warrior Wisdom by Sammy Franco at Amazon.
1. Do not think dishonestly.
2. The Way is in training.
3. Become acquainted with every art.
4. Know the Ways of all professions.
5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
6. Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything
7. Percieve those things which cannot be seen.
8. Pay attention even to trifles.
9. Do nothing which is of no use.
– Musashi Miyamoto, A Book Of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho)
“The best memorial for a mighty man is to gain honor ere death.” – Beowulf
“Focus on your one purpose.”
– Japanese motto
Warrior Wisdom by Sammy Franco at Amazon.
“The Way of a Warrior is based on humanity, love, and sincerity; the heart of martial valor is true bravery, wisdom, love, and friendship. Emphasis on the physical aspects of warriorship is futile, for the power of the body is always limited.”
– Ueshiba Morihei, The Art Of Peace
“Troops defeated in open battle should not be pampered or, even if it seems like a good idea, take refuge in a fortified camp or some other strong place, but while their fear is still fresh, they should attack again. By not indulging them they may with greater assurance renew the fighting.” – The Emperor Maurice
“Let men decide firmly what they will not do, and they will be free to do vigorously what they ought to do.” – Mencius
“We have nothing left in the world but what we can win with our swords. Timidity and cowardice are for men who can see safety at their backs – who can retreat without molestation along some easy road and find refuge in the familiar fields of their native land; but they are not for you: you must be brave; for you there is no middle way between victory or death – put all hope of it from you, and either conquer, or, should fortune hesitate to favour you, meet death in battle rather than in flight.” – Hannibal
“Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good.” – General Norman Schwarzkopf
“I was too weak to defend, so I attacked.” – Robert E. Lee
Warrior Wisdom by Sammy Franco at Amazon.
“The man who would be a warrior considers it his most basic intention to keep death always in mind, day and night, from the time he first picks up his chopsticks in celebrating his morning meal on New Year’s Day to the evening of the last day of the year. When one constantly keeps death in mind, both loyalty and filial piety are realized, myriad evils and disasters are avoided, one is without illness and mishap, and lives out a long life. In addition, even his character is improved. Such are the many benifits of this act.”
–Daidoji Yuzan, Budoshoshinshu: The Warrior’s Primer (William Scott Wilson translation)
“Marine Corps integrity is doing that thing which is right, when no one is looking.” – Col. Colin Lampard
“Battles are won by superiority of fire.” – Frederick the Great
“The battle of Iwo Island (Jima) has been won. The United States Marines, by their individual and collective courage, have conquered a base which is as necessary to us in our continuing forward movement toward final victory as it was vital to the enemy in staving off ultimate defeat…Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.” – Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
“In order to smash, it is necessary to act suddenly.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.” – General Norman Schwarzkopf
Warrior Wisdom by Sammy Franco at Amazon.
“No guts; no glory.” – Major Frederick Blesse
“No matter whether a person belongs to the upper or lower ranks, if he has not put his life on the line at least once he has cause for shame.” – Nabeshima Naosige
“Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.” – Marcus Aurelius
“My first wish would be that my military family, and the whole Army, should consider themselves as a band of brothers, willing and ready to die for each other.” – George Washington
“Who fights only by himself is weak; who does it jointly is strong.” – Frederick the Great
“When the proper form of propriety is observed, the wise officers will come.” – Huang Shi Gong
Warrior Wisdom by Sammy Franco at Amazon.
“Whenever you meet difficult situations dash forward bravely and joyfully.”
– Tsunetomo Yamamoto, Hagakure
“Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.” – George Washington
“In battle, like in siege, skill consists in converging a mass of fire on a single point: once the combat is opened, the commander who is adroit will suddenly and unexpectedly open fire with a surprising mass of artillery on one of these points, and is sure to seize it.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“Many men feel that they should act according to the time or the moment they are facing, and thus are in confusion when something goes beyond this and some difficulty arises.” – Shiba Yoshimasa
“Do thou therefore I say absolutely and freely make choice of that which is best, and stick unto it.” – Marcus Aurelius
Warrior Wisdom by Sammy Franco at Amazon.
Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back.
– Samurai maxim
“A man with deep far-sightedness will survey both the beginning and the end of a situation and continually consider its every facet as important.” – Takeda Shingen
“If you dismiss one good man, then all good people will lose heart. Reward an evil person and all evil persons will be drawn to you.” – Huang Shi Gong
Warrior Wisdom by Sammy Franco at Amazon.
“You can prevent your opponent from defeating you through defense, but you cannot defeat him without taking the offensive.”
– Sun Tzu
“The fighter is to be always single-minded with one object in view: to fight, looking neither backward nor sidewise. To go straight forward in order to crush the enemy is all that is necessary for him.”
– Daisetz Suzuki
“If you walk, just walk. If you sit, just sit. But whatever you do, don’t wobble.”
– Master Ummon
“Go to the battlefield firmly confident of victory and you will come home with no wounds whatsoever.”
– Samurai general Kenshin Uesugi (1530-78)
“The warrior’s intention should be simply to grasp his sword and to die.”
– Kiyomasa Kato (1562-1611)
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Taking advantage of their fright and fear is the means by which one can attack ten.” – Jiang Taigong
“First see to it that you, yourself, are all right, then think of defeating an opponent.”
– The Way of the Spear
“Seems to me that if you’re afraid or living with some big fear, you’re not really living. You’re only half alive. I don’t care if it’s the boss you’re scared of or a lot of people in a room or diving off of a dinky little board, you gotta get rid of it. You owe it to yourself. Makes sort of a zombie out of you, being afraid. I mean you want to be free, don’t you? And how can you if you are scared? That’s prison. Fear’s a jailer. Mind now, I’m not a professor on the subject. I just found it out for myself. But that’s what I think.” – Audie Murphy
“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because…it is the quality that guarantees all others.” – Winston Churchill
“If you know the art of breathing you have the strength, wisdom and courage of ten tigers.”
– Chinese adage
“The focused mind can pierce through stone.”
– Japanese maxim
“When attacking, don’t be careless.”
– The Way of the Spear
“Tomorrow’s battle is won during today’s practice.”
– Samurai maxim
“The end of our Way of the sword is to be fearless when confronting our inner enemies and our outer enemies.”
– Tesshu Yamaoka, 19th century Kendo master
“To fight and conquer in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy with no fight at all, that’s the highest skill.”
– Sun Tsu
“It’s a difficult thing to truly know your own limits and points of weakness.”
– Hagakure
“If the enemy stays spirited it is difficult to crush him.”
– Musashi Miyamoto
“A warrior must only take care that his spirit is never broken.”
– Shissai
“Don’t always think in a straight line.”
– The Way of the Spear
Katte, kabuto no o o shime yo!
After victory, tighten you helmet cords!
– Samurai battle cry
“I am a Shawnee. My forefathers were warriors. Their son is a warrior…From my tribe I take nothing. I am the maker of my own fortune.”
– Tecumseh
“Now as for me, my men, there is not one of you who has not with his own eyes seen me strike a blow in battle; I have watched and witnessed your valour in the field, and your acts of courage I know by heart, with every detail of when and where they took place: and this, surely, is not a thing of small importance. I was your pupil before I was your commander; I shall advance into the line with soldiers I have a thousand times praised and rewarded; and the enemy we shall meet are raw troops with a raw general, neither knowing anything of the other.” – Hannibal
“Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.” – Carlos Castaneda
“Whenever a warrior decides to do something, he must go all the way, but he must take responsibility for what he does. No matter what he does, he must know first why he is doing it, and then he must proceed with his actions without having doubts or remorse about them.” – Carlos Castaneda
“There’s no way to put a limit on what one may accomplish individually if the intent is an impeccable intent. Don Juan’s teachings are not spiritual. I repeat this because the question has come to the surface over and over. The idea of spirituality doesn’t fit with the iron discipline of a warrior. The most important thing for a shaman like don Juan is the idea of pragmatism.” – Carlos Castaneda
“A warrior considers himself already dead, so there is nothing to lose. The worst has already happened to him, therefore he’s clear and calm; judging him by his acts or by his words, one would never suspect that he has witnessed everything.” – Carlos Castaneda
“A warrior must learn to make every act count, since he is going to be here in this world for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.” – Carlos Castaneda
“The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people’s opinions.” – Paulo Coelho
“A warrior of light who trusts too much in his intelligence will end up underestimating the power of his opponent.” – Paulo Coelho
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” – Sun Tzu
“A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity is down for good.” – Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
“Always hold your head up, but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level.” – Max L. Forman
“Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one’s own despised and unwanted feelings.” – Alice Miller
“Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.” – Samuel Johnson
“Holding on to anger only gives you tense muscles.” – Joan Lunden
“The only one who can beat me is me.” – Michael Johnson
“I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.” – Albert Einstein
“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.” – Thueydides
“The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of courage which all must reach.” – Sun Tzu
“The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.” – George Washington
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
“There is nothing more base than for a man to lose his temper too often. No matter how angry one becomes, his first thought should be to pacify his mind and come to a clear understanding of the situation at hand. Then, if he is in the right, to become angry is correct.” – Shiba Yoshimasa
“Every duty is a charge, but the charge of oneself is the root of all others.” – Mencius
“For where there is no one in control nothing useful or distinguished can be done. This is roughly true of all departments of life, and entirely true where soldiering is concerned. Here it is discipline that makes one feel safe, while lack of discipline has destroyed many people before now.” – Xenophon
“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“One finds life through conquering the fear of death within one’s mind. Empty the mind of all forms of attachment, make a go-for-broke charge and conquer the opponent with one decisive slash.” – Togo Shigekata
“If you’re afraid of anything, why not take a chance and do the thing you fear? Sometimes it’s the only way to get over being afraid.” – Audie Murphy
“A true knight is fuller of bravery in the midst, than in the beginning of danger.” – Phillip Sidney
“In battle it is the cowards who run the most risk; bravery is rampart of defense.” – Sallust
“Let bravery be thy choice, but not bravado.” – Menander
“Soldiers must be treated in the first instance with humanity, but kept under control by means of iron discipline. This is a certain road to victory.” – Sun Tzu
“I am convinced that a man’s most precious possession is a wise and loyal friend.” – King Darius of Persia
I will keep adding to the Warrior Wisdom Quotes page, so check back frequently for the best in Warrior, Military, and Martial Arts quotes!