Musashi - by Eiji Yoshikawa and Charles Terry

ISBN: 156836427X
Date read: 2022-01-02
How strongly I recommend it: 0/10
(See my list of 360+ books, for more.)

Go to the Amazon page for details and reviews.

I don’t remember who told me this book was great, but I assumed it would have wisdom. It did not. It was 900 pages of poorly-written story. The few moments I enjoyed led to nothing. It was wasted time. I regret reading it.

my notes

Instead of wanting to be like this or that, make yourself into a silent, immovable giant.
Don’t waste your time trying to impress people.
If you become the sort of man people can respect, they’ll respect you, without your doing anything.

You want to be important? You shouldn’t aim so low.

Be more careful about your manners.
When people live together in harmony, the earth is a paradise.
But every man has a bad side as well as a good side.
Manners and etiquette keep us from letting the bad side take over.

Trees and plants he wanted to grow would not grow, while weeds and brush flourished no matter how often he cut them down.
Bad traits tend to develop and good ones to be repressed.

Day and night, hour by hour, people are buffeted by waves of pain and pleasure, one after the other.
If they try to experience only pleasure, they cease to be truly alive.
If you can bear up under hardship, you can experience a pleasure greater than the pain.