Martial arts quotations

Collection of quotations that are relevant to the martial arts.

• Storms make trees take deeper roots. -Claude McDonald
• Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk. -Joaquin Setanti
• He who praises everybody praises nobody. -Samuel Johnson
• Don't believe that winning is everything. It's more important to stand for something. If you don't stand for something, what did you win? -Lane Kirkland
• Sometimes the fool who rushes in gets the job done. -Al Bernstein
• Some things have to be believed to be seen. -Ralph Hodgson
• A true friend never gets in the way unless you happen to be going down. -Arnold Glasow
• The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack. -Wayne Lukas
• We all live under the same sky, but we don't have the same horizon. -Konrad Adenauer
• You can't test courage cautiously. -Annie Dillard
• Happiness is good health and a bad memory. -Ingrid Berman
• No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. -Calvin Coolidge
• A half truth is usually less than half of that. -Bern Williams
• Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. -Louis Pasteur
• Nothing lasts forever, not even your troubles. -Arnold Glasow
• Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. -Edward Stanley
• The work praises the man. -Irish proverb
• Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that open in snow. -Alice Swaim
• Even when experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. -Betrand Russell
• A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it. -Alistair Cooke
• Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late. -Flix Frankfurter
• To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it. -Plato
• Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other. -Erma Brombeck

• Some folks never exaggerate, they just remember big. -Audrey Snead
• Always give a hundred percent, and you'll never have to second guess yourself. -Tommy John
• You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do. -Henry Ford
• Every artist was first an amateur. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
• You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. -Margaret Thatcher
• The surest way to be late is to have plenty of time. -Leo Kennedy
• Use soft words and hard arguments. -English proverb
• The win to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win. -Bobby Knight
• Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible. -Edwin Land
• The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come. -Peter Ustinov
• Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to. -George Seaton
• Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. -Don Wilder
• If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you'll find you've done it. -Pam Shaw
• Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously. -G. K. Chesterton
• One of the most dangerous forms of human error is forgetting what one is trying to achieve. -Paul Nitze
• People want to know how much you care before they care how much you know. -James Hind
• Success has a simple formula: do your best, and pole may like it. -Sam Ewing
• There's a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot. -Steven Wright
• How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. -Annie Dillard
• What we must decide is how we are valuable, rather than how valuable we are. -Edgar Friedenberg
• The truth will ouch. -Arnold Glasow
• Whenever things sound easy, it turns out there's one part you didn't hear. -Donald Westlake.
• When you have attained the way of strategy there will not be one thing that you cannot understand. -Miyamoto MusashiTo search for the old is to understand the new.
• The old, the new. This is a matter of time. The Way: Who will pass it on straight and well? -Poem by Master Funakoshi
• Those who achieve the most are not the most skilled, but are those who concentrate long after other have given up. -Tsutomu Ohshima
• The secret of victory is to know both yourself and your enemy. -Azato
• To know and to act are one and the same. -Samurai maxim
• Day after day train your heart out, Refining your technique: Use the One to strike the Many! That is the discipline of a Warrior. -Morihei Ueshiba
• A dead end is just a good place to turn around. -Naomi Judd
• Live every day like it's your last, 'cause one day you're gonna be right. -Ray Charles
• Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. -Napoleon

• From http://www.reddingshotokan.org/lessons.php
  • "Eliminating one weakness is better than adding one strength."
  • "Always look through the enemies' eyes."
  • "To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill."
  • "To stand still is to regress."
  • "Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril."
  • "The present is a result of the past; the future is a result of the present."
  • "Those who achieve the most are not the most skilled, but those who concentrate long after others have given up."
  • "Attainment will come when you've been strengthened through the struggle."
  • "If you are afraid to get wet, jump into the lake."
  • "Years of work may be ruined by a single moment of inattention."
  • "Don't accept the superficial answer. Look deeper to find the real one."

• The Karate Kid, Part II (1986The most important thing for an instructor is to be sincere. So if you can fake that, you will have it made.
  • Daniel: You could have killed him, couldn't you?
  • Mr. Miyagi: Aiy.
  • Daniel: Well, Why didn't you?
  • Mr. Miyagi:: Because Daniel, for man with no forgiveness in heart, life worse punishment than death.
  • [Walking through the Okinawa airport, Daniel and Miyagi see a poster advertising Sato's karate school. The poster shows Sato breaking a log with his bare hands.]
  • Daniel: You think you could break a log like that?
  • Mr. Miyagi: Don't know. Never been attacked by a tree.
  • Daniel: If you and Sato fought, would your father be the referee?
  • Mr. Miyagi: No referee.
  • Daniel: Then how do you know who wins?
  • Mr. Miyagi:

The one who's dead, doesn't.

Daniel-san, never put passion before principle. Even if win, you lose.

Daniel-san, it is not quantity of Karate, but quality of Karate that counts

Daniel-san! Daniel-san! It okay lose to opponent, must not lose to fear!

• The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life. -Samurai maxim
• A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be. -Rosalynn Carter
• Persistence trumps talent and looks every time. -Arron Brown
• Keep moving if you love life, and keep your troubles well behind you. -John McCain
• I have failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. -Michael Jordan
• Act like you expect to get into the end zone. -Joe Paterno
• If you're going to think anyway, you might as well think big. -Donald Trump
• When the only tool you embrace is a hammer, you tend to approach every problem as if it where a nail.
• Le Chatelier's Principle: If a stress is applied to a system at equilibrium, the system responds to relieve the stress.
• In nature, a fine line separates the hunter from being the hunted.
• Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong. -Muhammad Ali
• There are so many things that are incredible about me. The most amazing is my humility. -Will Smith
• Inscriptions on tombstones usually end with two dates, the person's date of birth and date of death, connected by a dash. That dash represents the person's lifetime. Make the most of your dash!
• Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -Ann Brashares
• Competitors who complain about the judges are like sailors who complain about the sea. There is nothing anyone can do about it.
• Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected. -William Safire
• Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it. -Salvador Dali
• When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less. - Paul Brown
• The result of conformity is that everyone likes you, except yourself.
• Eighty percent of all questions are statements in disguise. -Dr. Phil McGraw
• The day people stop bring you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. -Colin Powell
• Heroes are people who rise to the occasion, and then slip quietly away. -Tom Brokaw
• I've reached the age where competence is a turn-on. -Billy Joel
• Fall seven times, get up eight.
• Found in Old Saint Paul’s Church (Baltimore; dated 1692)
  • Go placidly amid the noise & haste, & remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly & clearly; and listen to others, even the dull & ignorant; they too have their story.
  • Avoid loud & aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain & bitter; for always there will be greater & lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
  • Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
  • Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity & disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.
  • Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue & loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
  • You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees & the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
  • Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors & aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
  • With all its sham, drudgery & broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.
• Humor is a rubber sword—it allows you to make a point without drawing blood -Mary Hirsch
• The harder you train, the easier the fight. -Herman Suwanda
• If you face your opponent and doubt yourself—you're outnumbered. -Dan Milman
• Chance favors the prepared.
• People always call it luck when you have acted more sensibly than they have -Anne Tyler
• Go hard or go home.
• Know yourself and know your opponent—you will not face peril in a thousand battles. -Sun Tzu
• A champion is someone who gets back up—even if they can't. -Jack Dempsey
• Sweat in the gym; don't bleed in the streets. -Joe Frazier.
• Float like a butterfly sting like a bee—your hands can't hit what your eyes can't see. -Mohamed Ali
• The human mind can subjugate anything—even real pain. -Bruce lee.
• Do all you can do; that's all you can do. - TKDTutor
• Taekwondo just is shotokan with with serial numbers filed off and aggressive marketing.
• The first five black belt ranks come from what you've gotten out of the system, the next ranks come from what you've given back.
• The tongue weighs practically nothing, but so few people may hold it.

• Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.
• She who loses money, loses much; She who loses a friend, loses more; She who loses faith, loses all.
• Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.
• Anger is only one letter short of danger.
• Silence. Once you say the word, it no longer exists.
• Beware the fury of a patient man. -Jake (The Snake) Roberts, professional wrestler
• Take integrity over popularity and you'll always be cool. - Carlos Santana
• Failure is God's way of saying, "Excuse me, you're moving in the wrong direction." - Oprah Winfrey
• If you don't have enemies, you don't have character. - Paul Newman
• It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results. - Warren Buffet
• A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every action. -Samurai Maxim
• Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment. -Lao-Tzu
• Nothing is impossible to a willing mind. -Books of Han Dynasty
• When you seek it, you cannot find it. -Zen Riddle
• Life like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.
• For the uncontrolled there is no wisdom, nor for the uncontrolled is there the power of concentration; and for him without concentration there is no peace. And for the un-peaceful, how can there be happiness? - Bhagavad Gita
• Power of mind is infinite, while brawn is limited. -Koichi Tohei
• You and your opponent are one. There is a coexisting relationship between you. You coexist with your opponent and become his complement, absorbing his attack and using his force to overcome him. -Bruce Lee
• Softness triumphs over hardness, feebleness over strength. What is more malleable is always superior over that which is immovable. This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them, of master through adaptation. -Lao-Tzu
• Control your emotion or it will control you. -Chinese adage
• The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life. -Samurai maxim
• I can defeat you physically with or without a reason. But I can only defeat your mind with a reason. -Jim Lau
• You may train for a long, long, time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning karate is not very different from learning to dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of karate-do. -Gichin Funakoshi
• Light travels faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright until you speak to them.\
• To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill. -Sun Tzu
• In order to achieve victory you must place yourself in your opponent’s skin. If you don’t understand yourself, you will lose one hundred percent of the time. If you understand yourself, you will win fifty percent of the time. If you understand yourself and your opponent, you will win one hundred percent of the time. -Tsutomu Oshima
• There is a sequence of phases in developing the practice of one’s art. One begins by self-consciously practicing a certain technique. One proceeds slowly, deliberately, reflectively; but one keeps on practicing until the technique becomes internalized and one is no longer self-conscious when executing it. After a set of techniques has been thoroughly internalized, one begins to grasp the principles behind them. And finally, when one has understood and internalized the basic principles, one no longer responds mechanically to a given attack, but begins to use the art creatively and in a manner whereby one’s individual style and insights can find expression. -Miyamoto Musashi
• Practicing a thousand days is said to be a discipline, and practicing ten thousand days is said to be refining. -Miyamoto Mussashi
• A rich man, fond of felines, asked a famous Zen ink painter to draw him a cat. The master agreed and asked the man to come back in three months. When the man returned, he was put off, again and again, until a year had passed. Finally, at the man's request, the master drew out a brush, and , with grace and ease, in a single fluid motion, drew a picture of a cat - the most marvelous image the man had ever seen. He was astonished; then he grew angry. "That drawing took you only thirty seconds! Why did you make me wait a year?" he demanded. Without a word, the master opened up a cabinet, and out fell thousands of drawings - of cats. -Zen story
• A Winner’s Creed - AnonymousIf the spirit of humility, an intrinsic element of Bushido, is removed from the teaching of classical martial studies the lack of this important virtue makes of such studies mere systems of violence. -Risuke Otake
  • If you think you are beaten, you are;
  • If you think you dare not, you don’t;
  • If you’d like to win, but think you can’t,
  • it’s almost certain you won’t.
  • If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost;
  • For out in the world we find success begins with a person’s will.
  • It’s all in the state of mind.
  • Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster hand.
  • But sooner or later, the person who wins is the one who thinks
  • "I Can".

• If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape 100 days of sorrow. - Chinese Proverb
• Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles that one has overcome while trying to succeed. - Booker Washington
• Promises are like babies—easy to make, but tough to deliver
• No matter what goes wrong, there's always someone who knew it would.
• If something happens to you, it has previously happened to all your friends.
• You're never a loser until you quit trying. -Mike Ditka
• Advice is what you ask for when you already know the answer but you didn't. - Erica Jong
• best discipline, maybe the only discipline that really works, is self-discipline. -Walter Kiechel
• Pride is tasteless, colorless, and size less. Yet it is the hardest thing to swallow. -August Black
• Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.
• You know you're old when you have lost all your marvels. -Merry Browne
• Kindness consists of loving people more than they deserve. - Joseph Joubert
• Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom. - Merry Browne
• A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green. -Francis Bacon
• Everything looks impossible for the people who never try anything. -Jean-Louis Etienne
• Character is much easier kept then recovered. -Thomas Paine
• The older back belts get, the greater they were. -TKDTutor
• Swing hard in case they throw the ball where you are swinging. -Duke Snider
• Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is? -Frank Scully
• There are no secret to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. -Colin Powell
• There are a lot of black belts that who mistake their imagination for their memory.
• Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. -Publilius Syrus
• Few wishes come true by themselves. -June Smith
• One thing about experience is that when you don't have very much you're apt to get a lot. -Franklin Jones
• The more sympathy you give, the less you need. -Malcolm Forbes

• Not the fastest horse can catch a word spoken in anger. -Chinese proverb
• The same fence that shuts others out shuts you in. -Bill Copeland
• It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded. -Anne Morrow Lindberg
• Opportunity's favorite disguise is trouble. -Frank Tyger
• The surest way to lose a friend is to tell him something for his own good. -Sid Archer
• Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before and wiser than the one that comes after. -George Orwell
• You can't act like a skunk without someone getting wind of it. -Lorene Workman
• The less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudices. -Clint Eastwood
• No man was ever wise by chance. -Seneca
• When you betray someone else, you often betray yourself. -Isaac Singer
• An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it. -O. A. Battista
• We find comfort among those who agree with us, growth among those who don't. -Frank Clark
• Only when a tree has fallen can your take the measure if it. It is the same with a man. -Anne Morrow Lindberg
• When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice. -Marquis de la Grange
• Habit if not resisted, soon become necessity. -St. Augustine
• A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectation. -Patricia Neal
• Patience! The windmill never strays in search of the wind. -Andy Sklivis
• After a certain number of years, out faces become out biographies. -Cynthia Ozick
• It is never too late to give up our prejudices. Henry Thoreau
• To profit from good advice require more wisdom than to give it. -John Collins
• Measure wealth not by the thing you have, but by the things you have for which you would not take money.
• It is hard to bear the tears that we ourselves have caused. -Marcel Proust
• Each of use is the accumulation of our memories -Alan McGinnis
• Everything starts as somebody's daydream -Larry Niven

• Make no judgments if you have no compassion. -Anne McCaffrey
• Today's opportunities erase yesterday's failure. -Gene Brown
• When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target. -George Fisher
• Be bold in what you stand for and careful in what you fall for. -Ruth Boorstin
• We are tomorrow's past. -Mary Webb
• Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. -John Wooden
• A have often been adrift, but I have always stayed afloat. -David Berry
• Discipline is remembering what you want. -David Campbell
• The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination. -Tommy Lasorda
• To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable. -Barry Goldwater
• There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. -Bevery Sills
• The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.
• We work to become, not to acquire. -Elbert Hubbard
• Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. -Dan Stanford
• In the race to quality, there is no finish line. -David Kearns
• We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are. -Max De Pree
• Time as a wonderful way of weeding out the trivial. -Richard SapirI make the most of what goes and the least of all that goes. -Sara Teasdale
• Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity. -Oprah Winfrey
• There has never been an age that did not applaud the past and lament the present. -Lillian Watson
• The best advice yet given is that you don't have to take it. -Libbie Fudim
• Let us be thankful for fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. -Mark Twain
• ou never know when you are making a memory. -Rickie Lee Jones
• Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response. -Mildred Narthel
• One of the nice things about problems is that a good many of them do not exist except in out imagination. -Steve Allen
• Goals determine what you are going to be. -Julius Erving

• When you have the advantage—you must attack—for any hesitation on your part could cause loss of that advantage. - Wilhelm Steinitz.
• I've wrestled with an alligator—tussled with a whale—handcuffed lightening—thrown thunder in jail—last night I murdered a rock—injured a stone—hospitalized a brick—I'm so mean I make medicine sick. - Mohamed Ali
• Sweat + sacrifice = success.
• Grace under pressure. -Ernest Hemingway
• "Morituri te Salutamus" Traditional salute given by gladiators to the giver of the games. Translates into English as "we who are about to die salute you."
• Fear of pain is worse than pain itself.
• Chance favors the prepared mind. -Louis Pasteur
• You can't fake endurance. -Marco Lala
• Pain is a relative concept -Tim Walk
• When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
• Move faster! -Morgan Freeman to Kevin Costner in Robin Hood.
• That which does not kill me only makes me stronger.
• Pain is weakness leaving the body.
• There is no shame in fighting for that which is important.
• It's not the belt that gives the champion respect, but the champion that gives the belt respect. -Shane Douglas
• If your are coming, then COME ON!!
• First you're the nail, then you get to be the hammer.
• The most spiritual human beings—if we are to assume are the most courageous; experience by far the worst tragedies. But it is for this that they honor life—because it pits its greatest opposition against them. -Nietszche.
• Pain is your friend.
• The best thing about pain is that it lets you know that you are still alive.
• It's what the champion does that makes him a champion.... It's what the other guy doesn't do, that makes him a coward. -Constantine "Cus" D'Amato

• It is better to regret something you have done than to regret something that you have not done.
• It's not the critic who counts. Not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; who's face is marred by blood, sweat, and dust; who strives valiantly but errs and comes short again and again because there is no human endeavor without shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms - the great devotions; and who, if he wins, knows the triumphs of high achievement and who, if his efforts are checkered by defeat, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. -Teddy Roosevelt
• Success is traveling from failure to failure with undiminished enthusiasm -Churchill
• Pain is temporary, Pride is forever.
• Hold till cold.
• My dream is to become your worst nightmare.
• Doubt not to reap, if thou canst bear to plough. -Judith Madan
• WAR: Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack. -Sun Tzu
• PERSUASION: Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. -Sun Tzu
• ENEMIES: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. -Sun Tzu
• We will either find a way, or we will make one. -Hannibal 400BC
• An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it. -O. A. Battista
• CHARACTER: The best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back. -Abigail Van Buren
• Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. -Kahlil Gibran
• The basic difference between an ordinary person and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge; where an ordinary person takes everything as either a blessing or a curse. -Don Juan, Yaqui Medicine Man
• That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed, but that our ability to do has increased. -Emerson

• The ideal is in thyself, the impediment to is in thyself. -Thomas Carlyle
• Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. -Sir Winston Churchill October 29, 1941
• Unknown AuthorFortune favors the brave.A winner is willing to do what the loser will not.
  • Success is doing the best you can, in as many ways as you can. It is being just and honest and true - not in a few things, but in everything you do.
  • Always look ahead and never look back, believe you can make all your dreams come true. Always believe in the best you can be and have faith in the things that you do.
  • Forget about mistakes you’ve made yesterday, the lessons you learn will prove valuable for today .... Never give up and think you’re through, for there’s always tomorrow and a chance to begin brand new.
  • It is in dreaming the greatest dreams ....
  • and seeking the highest goals ....
  • that we build the brightest tomorrow.
  • There is no limit to the goals you can attain, or the success you can achieve .... your possibilities are as endless as your dreams.
• The harder I train the luckier I get. -Renzo
• You come here to work on yourself, only yourself. Therefore, thank anyone who gives you the opportunity. -Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff
• Learn to do the most with the least so that you may over come and conquer. -Zev
• Everyday you don't workout—someone else does!
• The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;...who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows of triumph and high achievement, and if he fails, fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls that know neither victory nor defeat. -Teddy Roosevelt (he had a way with words)
• Train hard, fight easy. - attributed to Marshal Suvorov of the Russian Army, 18th-19th centuries.
• Training is everything, and everything is training!
• Proper prior planning prevents piss-poor performance!
• Unknown authorTraining must be like bloodless battle so that battle is just like bloody training. -Roman Legionnaire saying
  • I hate guys
  • Who criticize
  • Other guys
  • Whose enterprise
  • Has helped them rise
  • Above the guys
  • Who criticize
• Pain? What's Pain? I've had pain all my life. I've been hurt all my life. I'm never going to have the pain gone. The pain's not going to be gone until I die. I've got too many joints that are beat up. It's just the way it is. -Dan Gable

• There's only 3 ways to hit, hard, fast, and continuously.
• If you lose your head and give up, then you neither win nor live... and that's just the way it is. - Outlaw Josey Whales
• Try not... DO, or DO NOT, there is no Try. - Yoda
• Success isn't permanent and failure isn't fatal. -Mike Ditka
• Higher consciousness through harder contact! -Dog Brothers
• If you say you're going to do it, and you go out and do it, it ain't braggin'. -Dizzy Dean
• You don't have to like it -- you just have to do it. -Navy Seal saying.
• Once Bruce Lee was accompanying Stirling Silliphant on a 3 mile run. Toward the end, Bruce said that they were now going to "shift gears" and do a couple of extra miles. The writer protested that he was 45 and couldn't do it. After 5 minutes running, Silliphant's head was pounding. "If I run anymore, I'll have a heart attack and die! he gasped. "Then DIE!" said Bruce. This made Silliphant so mad that he did the extra miles. Later while showering Bruce explained. If you put limits on yourself and what you can do, physical or anything, you might as well be dead. It will spread over into your work, your morality, your entire being. There are no limits, only plateaux. But you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you."
• Your mind can make your train. Your body can create power. Only your heart can make you a champion.
• Inaugural Speech of Nelson Mandela (South Africa, 1994)Lead with speed, devour with power. Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.
  • Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.
  • We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
  • Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in Everyone.
  • And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
• Second place is first loser.
• In training, mistakes can be made. The street calls for perfection.
• It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand. -General Ben Childlaw
• There are not fifty ways of fighting, there is only one way to be the conqueror. -Andre Malraux
• Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true. -Honore De Balzac
• They've got us surrounded again, the poor bastards. -General Crieghton W. Abrams
• And each man stands with his face in the light of his own drawn sword, ready to do what a hero can. -Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Who dares, wins. -Motto of the British SAS regiment

• Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning. -George Elliot
• To be number one you have to train as if you're number two.
• A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood. -General George S. Patton (1885-1945)
• We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time. -Vince Lombardi
• Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. -Henry Ford (1863-1947)
• It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. -Mark Twain (1835-1910)
• The harder you train, the harder it is to give up. -Vince Lombardi. 1913-1970.
• Live to Train, Train to Fight, Fight to Live.
• Lying makes a problem part of the future: truth makes a problem part of the past. - Rick Pitino
• If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much. - Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
• The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else. -Martina Navratilova
• Live out your imagination, not your history. - Stephen Covey
• The squeaky wheel may get the most oil, but its also the first to be replaced. -Marilyn Vos Savant
• If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you ever tried.
• A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
• Even monkeys fall from trees.
• It doesn't matter how slow you go as long as you don't stop.
• Taekwondo is like hot water. If you don't keep adding hot, it will soon cool.
• Ride the horse in the direction it's going.
• You can't catch a tiger's cub unless you dare to step into it's cave.
• If you think your good enough, you've just started your decline.
• A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
• Spirit first, technique second.
• Control your emotions or they will control you.

• The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.
• Correct execution of the technique leads to a correct understanding of the technique.
• Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
• For every action, there is an equal but opposite criticism.
• Never do card tricks for the group you play poker with.
• No one is listening until you make a mistake.
• Success always occurs in private, failure in full view.
• To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. - General George Washington
• He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened. -Tao Te Ching
• Master the divine techniques of the Art of Peace and no enemy will dare to challenge you. -Ueshiba
• In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few -Suzuki
• Without Knowledge, skill cannot be focused. Without Skill, strength cannot be brought to bear and without strength, knowledge may not be applied. -Alexander the Great's Chief Physician
• To a real warrior, power perceived may be power achieved.
• Given enough time, any man may master the physical. With enough knowledge, any man may become wise. It is the true warrior who can master both....and surpass the result. -Tien T'ai
• Act like a man of thought. Think like a man of action -Thomas Mann
• Civilize the mind but make savage the body -Chairman Mao
• Unless you do your best, the day will come when, tired and hungry, you will halt just short of the goal you were ordered to reach, and, by halting ,you will make useless the efforts and deaths of thousands -Gen. George S. Patton
• I have a high art, I hurt with cruelty those who would damage me. -Archilocus, 650 B.C.
• Some Warriors look fierce, but are mild. Some seem timid, but are vicious. Look beyond appearances; position yourself for the advantage. - Deng Ming-Dao
• Only a warrior chooses pacifism; others are condemned to it.
• I dislike death, however, there are some things I dislike more than death. Therefore, there are times when I will not avoid danger. -Mencius
• Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay it's price. -Sun Tzu

• It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. -Confucius
• War is not about who is right, it is about who is left.
• To practice Zen or the Martial Arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserve—as if you might die in the next instant -Taisen Deshimaru
• The Ultimate Warrior leaves no openings -Except in his mind.
• When the Way comes to an end, then change - having changed, you pass through. -I Ching
• Ultimately, you must forget about technique. The further you progress, the fewer teachings there are. The Great Path is really NO PATH. -Ueshiba Morihei
• When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target.
• Victory goes to the one who has no thought of himself -Shinkage School of Swordsmanship
• See first with your mind, then with your eyes, and finally with your body -Yagyu Munenori
• Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself -Chinese Proverb
• When the student is ready, the Master appears. -Buddhist Proverb
• Be master OF mind rather than mastered BY mind -Zen Saying
• Like fire, Taekwondo itself is neither good nor evil. It is neutral, its character is determined by the eye of the perceiver, the hand of the user. - Adapted from quote by Jerrold Mundis
• The best martial artist is the one who's having the most fun. - Adapted from quote by Alex Lowe
• A wise man believes in silence, he does not boast of his prowess. He will not display his self-defense, until he hears a cry of distress. Only then he will not hesitate to protect the helpless one.
• To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill.
• A warrior takes no pleasure in winning battles, for to do so would be finding gratification in the pain of others.
• Truthful words are not always beautiful; beautiful words are not always truthful.
• The thunder is loud, but the raindrops are small.
• Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous.
• Give a person your catch of fish and you have fed them for a day. Teach that person how to catch fish, and you have fed them for life.
• Taekwondo class is like pizza. Even when its bad, it's good.

• A student once complained, "You tell us stories, but you never reveal their meaning to us." The master replied, "How would you like it if I offered you fruit, but chewed it up for you first?"
• Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find you freedom. -F. Herbert
• If you haven't failed; you're not trying hard enough. -Attila the Hun
• Those who know honor, but practice humility, will be as a valley, receiving all the world into it.
• If one does not begin with a right attitude, there is little hope for a right ending.
• Mischief results from too much opening of the mouth. -Chinese proverb
• When you sit alone, meditate on your faults. In conversation, do not discuss the faults of others.
• Over every possessor of knowledge is one who is more knowing.
• You must train the body before you can train the mind! -Bodhidharma
• One who has attained mastery of an art, reveals it in his every action.
• A journey of a 1000 miles, begins with a single step. -Chinese riddle
• Our actions always shout volumes about our character.
• Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with conflict.
• Courage is acting in spite of fear. -Howard W. Hunter
• Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get.
• Failure to prepare is preparing to fail. -J. Wooden
• Without fear there are no heroes.
• Once you are in the fight, it is too late to wonder if this is a good idea.
• Never get into a fight without more ammunition that the other guy.
• Cover your buddy, so he can be around to cover for you.
• Decisions made by someone over your head will seldom be in your best interest.
• Sometimes, being good and lucky is still not enough.
• If everything is as clear as a bell and everything is going exactly as planned, you're about to be surprised.
• No matter what you do, the bullet with your name on it will get you. So too may the ones addressed "To Whom It May Concern."

• If you are wearing body armor, they will probably miss that part.
• Having all your body parts intact and functioning at the end of the day beats the alternative.
• If you are allergic to pain it is best to avoid a fight.
• It is a bad thing to run out of techniques, energy, and ideas all at the same time.
• Loud, sudden noises on a dark street WILL get your undivided attention.
• The further you walk into the darkness, the louder strange noises become.
• Accolades are OK, but having your body at the end of the day is better.
• Getting hit hurts!
• There is no such thing as a fair fight, only ones where you win or lose.
• If you win the battle, you are entitled to the spoils. If you lose, you don't care.
• Nobody cares what you did yesterday or what you are going to do tomorrow. What is important is what you are doing NOW.
• Prayer may not help, but it can't hurt.
• Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR.
• The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants.
• There are no offensive techniques in karate.
• Seek perfection of character, be faithful, endeavor, respect others, and refrain from violent behavior.
• Karate begins with courtesy. -Gichin Funakoshi
• Work as efficiently as possible, observe the leaders of the past, honor their ideas, and use some of their doctrines.
• The best offense is one that stops the opponent with minimum effort.
• The correct application of any technique is what is important.
• Within kata is all one will ever need to know to defend oneself. -Richard Kim
• You must make the most strenuous efforts. Throughout this life, you can never be certain of livings long enough to take another breath.
• The foolish reject what they see, not what they think; the wise reject what they think, not what they see. -Huang Po
• Brains, like hearts, go where they are appreciated. - Robert McNamara

• It does not matter how slowly you do as long as you do not stop. - Confucius
• Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment. - Lao Tzu
• If one really wishes to be master of an art, technical knowledge is not enough. One has to transcend technique so that the art becomes an "artless art" growing out of the unconsciousness. - D.T. Suzuki
• If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few. - Shunryu Suzuki
• The mind of a perfect man is like a mirror. It grasps nothing. It expects nothing. It reflects but does not hold. Therefore, the perfect man can act without effort. - Chuang Tzu
• A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. - Arthur Goldman
• Following quotes are from Mas Oyama:The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the perfection of the character of its participants. - Gichin Funakoshi To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill. - Sun Tsu, The Art of War
  • The Martial Way begins and ends with courtesy. Therefore, be properly and genuinely courteous at all times.
  • Following the Martial Way is like scaling a cliff. Continue upwards without rest. It demands absolute and unflattering devotion to the task at hand.
  • Strive to seize the initiative in all things, all the time guarding against actions stemming from selfish animosity or thoughtlessness.
  • Even for Martial Artists, the place of money cannot be ignored. Yet one should be careful never to become attached to it.
  • The Martial Way is centered in posture. Strive to maintain correct posture at all times.
  • The Martial Way begins with one thousand days and is mastered after ten thousand days of training.
  • In Martial Arts, introspection begets wisdom. Always see contemplation of your actions as an opportunity to improve.
  • The nature and purpose of the Martial Way is universal. All selfish desires should be roasted in the tempering fires of hard training.
  • Martial Arts begin with a point and end in a circle. Straight lines stem from this principle.
  • The true essence of the Martial Way can only be realized through experience. Knowing this, learn never to fear its demand.
  • Always remember: In Martial Arts the rewards of a confident and grateful heart are truly abundant.

• The fastest draw is when the sword never leaves the scabbard, The strongest way to block, is never to provoke a blow, And the cleanest cut is the one withheld. - Unknown
• Does not the sage say: "What is more yielding than water? Yet, back it comes again, wearing down the ridged strength, which cannot stand to its strength. What is more forceful than quite water?" - Kahn, Kung Fu, the Series
• Karate is a defensive art from beginning to end. - Gichin Funakoshi
• A punch should stay like a treasure in the sleeve. It should not be used indiscriminately. - Master Chotoku Kyan
• Karate is not about winning. It's about not losing. - Master Shigetoshi Senaha
• There is no first strike in karate. - Master Gichin Funakoshi
• Karate-Do is a lifetime study. - Master Kenwa Mabuni
• Slow and steady wins the race. - Aesop
• He who chases around after many rabbits ends hungry. - Okinawan Proverb
• Those things in life that we find the hardest to do, are the things we are the most thankful we did.- Annette Ueckert
• The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.- Samuel Johnson
• The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. - Albert Einstein
• Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. - Antoine de Saint Exupery
• Truth is that which is true - whether you know it or not and whether you like it or not. - Ben Swett
• Boards don't hit back. - Bruce Lee
• By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to The Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character and man is their maker and master. - James Allen, As A Man Thinketh
• Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
• It is good to have an end to journey toward; but, it is the journey that matters in the end. - Ursula K. LeGuin
• Don't fear death. Fear the unlived life. - Natalie Babbitt
• Karate is for life, not points. - David Walker
• Karate begins and ends with respect. - Master Anko Itosu
• No matter how you may excel in the art of Kkarate, and in your scholastic endeavors, nothing is more important than your behavior and your humanity as observed in daily life. - Master Gichin Funakoshi

• You aren't rich until you have something money can't buy. - Garth Brooks
• I hate quotations. Tell me what you know. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Karate is a form of martial arts in which people who have had years and years of training can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the history of the world. - Dave Barry
• There are two rules for being successful in Martial Arts. Rule 1: Never tell others everything you know. - Unknown
• A one sided martial artist is a blind martial artist. - Unknown
• Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to go to his class. - General Choi, Founder of Taekwondo
• He who hesitates, meditates in a horizontal position - Ed Parker
• A black belt is nothing more than a belt that goes around your waist. Being a black belt is a state of mind and attitude. - Rick English
• It is not the accumulation of extraneous knowledge, but the realization of the self within, that constitutes true progress. - Okakura Kakuzo
• The art of the sword consists of never being concerned with victory or defeat, with strength or weakness, of not moving one step forward, nor one step backward, or the enemy not seeing me and my not seeing the enemy. Penetrating to that which is fundamental before the separation of heaven and earth where even yin and yang cannot reach, one instantly attains proficiency in the art. - Takuan
• A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every action. - Unknown
• Even though surrounded by several enemies set to attack, fight with the thought that they are but one. - Ueshiba
• Five Secrets of Japanese Goju Ryu - Gogen Yamaguch
  • Move quickly
  • Keep a sound, calm mind
  • Be light in body
  • Have a clever mind
  • Master the basics
• The sword has to be more than a simple weapon; it has to be an answer to life's questions. - Miyamoto Musashi
• The way of the sword and the Way of Zen are identical, for they have the same purpose; that of killing the ego. - Yamada Jirokichi
• Sword and mind must be united. Technique by itself is insufficient, and spirit alone is not enough. - Yamada Jirokichi
• Traditionalists often study what is taught, not what there is to create. - Ed Parker, Grandmaster, American kenpo.
• The first five dan ranks come for what you've gotten out of the system, the next ranks come for what you've given back. - Unknown

• You may train for a long time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning karate is not very different from learning a dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of karate-do. - Gichin Funakoshi
• Hoping to see karate included in the universal physical education taught in our public schools, I set about revising the kata so as to make them as simple as possible. Times change, the world changes, and obviously the martial arts must change too. The karate that high school students practice today is not the same karate that was practiced even as recently as ten years ago, and it is a long way indeed from the karate I learned when I was a child in Okinawa. [Written in 1956] - Gichin Funakoshi
• The Art of Peace is medicine for a sick world. There is evil and disorder in the world, because people have forgotten that all things emanate from one source. Return to that source and leave behind all self-centered thoughts, petty desires, and anger. Those who are possessed by nothing possess everything. - Morihei Ueshiba (O'Sensei)
• The teaching of one virtuous person can influence many; that which has been learned well by one generation can be passed on to a hundred. - Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo (1860-1938)
• Follow not in the footsteps of the masters, but rather seek what they sought - Unknown
• Truth is universal. Perception of truth is not. - Unknown
• No one nation or people has a monopoly on the sun and no one art or system as a monopoly on truth. - Mike Casto
• Some are wise, some are otherwise. - Unknown

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