Yamamoto Tsunetomo
…there is one transcending level, and this is the most excellent of all. This person is aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain way and never thinks of himself as having finished. He truly knows his own insufficiencies and never in his whole life thinks that he has succeeded. He has no thoughts of pride but with self-abasement knows the Way to the end. It is said that Master Yagyu once remarked, “I do not know the way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself.”
