Yagyu Munenori

"It is easy to kill someone with a slash of a sword. It is hard to be impossible for others to cut down."

"It is bias to think that the art of war is just for killing people. It is not to kill people, it is to kill evil. It is a stratagem to give life to many people by killing the evil of one person."

"Conquering evil, not the opponent, is the essence of swordsmanship."

"A stroke of the sword that does not hit its target is the sword stroke of death; you reach over it to strike the winning blow. Your adversarys initiative having missed its mark, you turn the tables around and get the jump on your adversary."

"When you strike a blow, do not let your mind dally on it, not concerning yourself with whether or not it is a telling blow; you should strike again and again, over and over, even four or five times. The thing is not to let your opponent even raise his head."

"Once a fight has started, if you get involved in thinking about what to do, you will be cut down by your opponent with the very next blow."