The book of five rings

is an excellent book by Miyamoto Musashi, translated by Thomas Cleary (isbn 1-57062-748-7). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

Preface: In common parlance, to do something with a real sword means to do it with utmost earnestness… The Book of Five Rings… explicitly intended to symbolise processes of struggle and mastery in all concerns and walks of life.

The martial way of life practiced by warriors is based on excelling others in anything and everything.

Fourth is the way of the artisan. In terms of the way of the carpenter, this involves skilful construction of all sorts of tools, knowing how to use each tool skilfully, drawing up plans correctly by means of the square and the ruler, making a living by diligent practice of the craft… practice unremittingly.

You should observe reflectively, with overall awareness of the large picture a well as precise attention to small details.

Having attained a principle, one detaches from the principles; thus one has spontaneous independence in the science of martial arts and naturally attains marvels.

As human beings, it is essential for each of us to cultivate and polish our individual path.

Observation and perception are two separate things.

It is essential to be relaxed in body and mind.

If you get to feeling snarled up and are making no progress, you toss your mood away and think in your heart that you are starting everything anew.

In my military science, it is essential that the physical aspect and the mental state both be simple and direct.

Whether in large- or small-scale military science, there is no narrow focus of the vision. As I have already written, by finicky narrowness of focus, you forget about bigger things and get confused, thus letting certain victory escape you.

Things stick in your mind because of being in doubt.

The practice of all the arts is for the purpose of clearing away what is on your mind. In the beginning, you do not know anything, so paradoxically you do not have any questions on your mind. Then, when you get into studies, there is something on your mind and you are obstructed by that. This makes everything difficult to do.