Martial Arts Quotes

“The best fighter is never angry.”
― Lao Tzu

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
― Bruce Lee

“Never respond to an angry person with a fiery comeback, even if he deserves it...Don't allow his anger to become your anger.”
― Bohdi Sanders, Warrior Wisdom: Ageless Wisdom for the Modern Warrior

“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy's cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

“Preoccupied with a single leaf you won't see the tree.”
― Vagabond

“To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.”
― Bruce Lee

“You Have the Power to Fulfill Your Dreams!”
― Dr. Tae Yun Kim, Seven Steps to Inner Power

“... but to remain historically accurate, I would have had to leave out an important question that I felt needed to be addressed, which is, 'What if Jesus had known kung fu?”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

“The warrior learns of the spiritual realm by dwelling on the cutting edge of the sword, standing at the edge of the fire pit, venturing right up to the edge of starvation if necessary. Vibrant and intense living is the warrior's form of worship.”
― Stephen K. Hayes

“In Japan, a number of time-honored everyday activities (such as making tea, arranging flowers, and writing) have traditionally been deeply examined by their proponents. Students study how to make tea, perform martial arts, or write with a brush in the most skillful way possible to express themselves with maximum efficiency and minimum strain. Through this efficient, adroit, and creative performance, they arrive at art. But if they continue to delve even more deeply into their art, they discover principles that are truly universal, principles relating to life itself. Then, the art of brush writing becomes shodo—the “Way of the brush”—while the art of arranging flowers is elevated to the status of kado—the “Way of flowers.” Through these Ways or Do forms, the Japanese have sought to realize the Way of living itself. They have approached the universal through the particular.”
― H.E. Davey, Japanese Yoga: The Way of Dynamic Meditation

“The most difficult part ot traditional taekwondo is not learning
the first kick or punch. It is not struggling to remember the
motions of a poomsae or becoming aquainted with Korean culture.
Rather, it is taking the first step across the threshold of the dojang
door. This is where roads diverge, where choices are made that
will resonate throughout a lifetime.”
― Doug Cook, Taekwondo: A Path to Excellence

“Unfortunately, religion often works to shrink and tame the very wild and mysterious forces that first drew our wonder. In the process of making the inexplicable safe for the masses, the possibilities for real illusion-piercing insight becomes reduced. One might say that they are only available to those who dare to ride the breaking crest of direct life-altering experience.”
― Stephen K. Hayes

“I’ve learned to fall like the BJJ player, to protect the body through controlling the distribution of force by slapping the mat with hands open. With hands open. Hands open. Open. O Pen.”
― Cameron Conaway, Caged: Memoirs of a Cage-Fighting Poet

“The Destructive Arts are exactly like Martial Arts, except they don't have uniforms or usefulness and the end result doesn't resemble art in any way.”
― Jim Benton, Okay, So Maybe I Do Have Superpowers

“I can show you the path but I can not walk it for you.”
― Master Iain Armstrong , Get Your Health Back Fast with Chinese Chi Kung.

“Tenderness relieves strength that encumbers.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“The Chinese words ‘kung fu’ translate more or less as ‘a man hard at work over a long time’. If you want to unlock the full power of kung fu, it is not going to be easy: you are going to have to work, you are going to have to sacrifice and you are going to have to suffer – over a long time. There really is no such thing as a free lunch.”
― Master Iain Armstrong

“I think all artists struggle to represent the geometry
of life in their own way, just like writers deal with
archetypes. There are only so many stories that you can
tell, but an infinite number of storytellers.”
― Henry Mosquera, Sleeper's Run

“The historic beauty of BJJ rests not with its ability to allow a smaller man to maim a larger man, but with its ability to allow any man of any size to survive.”
― Cameron Conaway, Caged: Memoirs of a Cage-Fighting Poet

“He landed on cheap shot, but I knocked him out of the tournament.”
― Josh Waitzkin, The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence

“If you take a bus, you should know when to get off!".”
― Master Iain Armstrong, Get Your Health Back Fast with Chinese Chi Kung.

“Η δυνατή γροθιά κατά την γνώμη μου, δεν είναι αυτή που θα πετάξει τον αντίπαλο τρία μέτρα μακριά, δυνατά γροθιά είναι εκείνη που οταν την δώσεις θα φύγεις πίσω και εσύ ο ίδιος.”
― Γιώργος Μ.

“If you are forcing it, you are doing it wrong”
― T. D. Abe

“Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted by reality”
― Bruce Lee

“It was the Die Trying promotion tour, and I wasn't mugged. In fact, I mugged the other guy. Promotion tours are hard work, but the compensation is freebie visits to places you might not otherwise go, so I always make a habit, when the day is done, of taking a stroll, usually about midnight. I was in San Francisco, so figured I'd go look at the Tenderloin part of town, which is rough. This guy stepped out and basically said, "Give me your money." ... I was amazed how quickly I snapped back through almost 40 years and suddenly became that tough city kid again. I got right in the guy's face and told him he had to give me his money or I'd break his arms. Just a purely instinctive reaction from long ago. Never back down. Never show fear. He only had five bucks. I gave it to the next homeless person I saw.”
― Lee Child

“I may seem smaller than I look, but what people don't know about me is that I once weight-lifted my own weight when I was in high school, ran more miles than anyone else in Physical Education in my class in high school, and was trained by a Shaolin Kung Fu monk while being the only girl in class. I am also trained in archery and firearms. So when it comes to being physically small or petite and even looking like a girly girl; it doesn't matter. I am strong. I am awared and disciplined. And I can leverage the playing field because I am trained. - Kailin Gow in Strong by Kailin Gow”
― Kailin Gow

“The man who does not plan for the future will come to regret it.”
― Bohdi Sanders, BUSHIDO: The Way of the Warrior

“I don’t always do what’s NICE, but I will always do what’s RIGHT.”
― Bohdi Sanders

“Martial arts is not about fighting, it is about being fit and healthy, both physiologically and psychologically.”
― Abhijit Naskar