Favorite Martial Arts Quote

[SensibleManiac]

What's your favorite martial arts related quote and who said it?

I'm looking from anything that has had a profound impact in your training or life to anything that is just funny.

Let's hear em!

[Big Don]

A couple of weeks ago, after sparring, my Sifu said, "Big Don, you've gotten a lot better."
That was a personal highlight, but, probably not what you're looking for...

[Sukerkin]

There's a couple that I recall instantly, which probably means that meant something to me when I first heard them :D.

The first is Bruce Lee's whole 'pointing a finger at the moon' sequence from Enter the Dragon. It brought home to me the difference between focus and perception.

The second is from the much more recent Last Samurai, where the village head comes to Tom Cruise's character whilst he was practising and made the deliciously short "Too many mind" advice. Just because it sounds like a hokey aphorism doesn't mean it's not true :D.

[terryl965]

Pain is only in your mind - old instructo


Remember fighting does not make you right, it only makes you right for that moment. - Another instructor


If only you was a real man, then I would not mind hitting you - same instructor about another student a long time ago. This one is my favorite.

[Bill Mattocks]

"Pain is weakness leaving the body." - USMC Boot Camp

[Grenadier]

"If you show your face in here again, I'm gonna hit you with so many rights, you'll be begging me for a left!" - Chuck Norris, in Invasion USA.

[xJOHNx]

Maybe a classic:

“If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” Bruce Lee

Works for me both in training, weightlifting, stuying and doing other things.

[Bill Mattocks]

"If you show your face in here again, I'm gonna hit you with so many rights, you'll be begging me for a left!" - Chuck Norris, in Invasion USA.

Or, as a friend of mine was fond of saying, "I'll hit him so hard and so fast he'll be yellin' ya'll stop!"

[celtic_crippler]

"Desire is not enough, one must do. Knowldege is not enough, one must apply." - Bruce Lee

"In the end it matters not who is right, it matters who is left" - Ed Parker

"He who hesitates, meditates in the horizontal position." -Ed Parker

"Those who don't remember to keep their hands up wear a black eye for a trophy" - unknown

"It's kenpo...it's supposed to hurt." -Me

"My nuts may be small, but they hurt big!" - A 10 year old student I just took on whose first class was this past Saturday...classic. LOL

[Jaspthecat]

"Get in, strike, get out, don't stand there admiring your handywork" - my MT instructor

"Kick him in the nuts" - my Krav Maga instructor

[Big Don]

If only you was a real man, then I would not mind hitting you - same instructor about another student a long time ago. This one is my favorite.
DAMN! That's harsh.

[Big Don]

My Sifu when asked by a new student why there are so many groin shots in Kenpo techniques: "Because it works, every time."

[Bill Mattocks]

My Sifu when asked by a new student why there are so many groin shots in Kenpo techniques: "Because it works, every time."

My sensei says that we practice kicks and strikes to the groin, not the testicles. They just happen to be in the way.

[Xue Sheng]

"boards don't hit back"

[dancingalone]

"Shut up and train."

[K831]

"I will hurt you, but I will never harm you" - My Kenpo instructor, explaining the importance of pain, and the difference between it and injury.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
~ Bruce Lee


"Traditionalists often study what is taught, not what there is to create"
- Ed Parker

"When pure knuckles meet pure flesh, that's pure Karate, no matter who executes, or whatever style is involved."
- Ed Parker

"The shotgun approach is fine, if you have already taken the rifle approach in one style"
- My kenpo instructor explaining the importance of a good base in one style before trying to dabble in multiple styles.

[still learning]

Hello, " Silence is Golden" Better to look stupid than opening the mouth and remove all doubt...

...hum? ...reminds of someone...still learning here...

Aloha,

[Phoenix44]

"There are no do-overs in the dojo of life." (Phoenix44, 1996)

[Catalyst]

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.
- Muhammad Ali

The more you sweat in training the less you bleed in battle.
- Author Unknown

Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth.
- Mike Tyson

[Xue Sheng]

When I Want Your Opinion I'll Beat It Out Of You - Chuck Norris

[Twin Fist]

"you suck, train harder"

[tallgeese]

If you find yourself in a fair fight then your tactics were bad.

[Tames D]

I'm gonna take this right foot, and I'm gonna whop you on that side of your face... - Billy Jack

[Sigung86]

If the cause is just, even though the foe be 10,000... I go.*

*Funakoshi Gichen -- Founder of Shoto Kan Karate

[Big Don]

Theodore Roosevelt, Judoka and Twenty-sixth President of the United States:

The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far

[shihansmurf]

Here are some of my favorites,


" Not every technique has the same reaction on every person, therefore no technique is 100% effective" - Bill Shaw

"Freestyle means more than one way to do it right, it does not mean any old way you want. Taken together these two statements indicate the obvious logic that follows. While there is more than one way to do it right, there is also more than one way to do it wrong" - Bill Shaw

"There are three laws of the flesh. Strength is the child of toil, skill is the child of discipline, and endurance is the child of suffering." David Jackson (my teacher that I came through the color belts under)

The obstacle is the path
~ Zen Proverb

"If you fail to take advantage of your enemies' collapse, they may recover." - The Book of Five Rings

"All know the Way; Few actually walk it." -- Bodhidarma

"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

I like these.

Mark

[Bill Mattocks]

"You move like a pregnant yak." - Chiun, Master of Sinanju.

"You have to run very fast." Chiun, Master of Sinanju (when explaining how he can run on the surface of a lake)

"I dislike death, however, there are some things I dislike more than death. Therefore, there are times when I will not avoid danger." - Mencius

"Only a warrior chooses pacifism; others are condemned to it" - Unknown

"A warrior lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting." - Carlos Castenada

"Warriors do not win victories by beating their heads against walls, but by overtaking the walls. Warriors jump over walls; they don't demolish them." - Carlos Castenada

"Life has meaning only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the Gods… So let us celebrate the struggle!" - Swahili saying

"Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death." - Miyamoto Musashi

"There exist only three respectable beings: the priest, the warrior, the poet. To know, to kill, and to create." - Charles Baudelaire

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." - Sun Tzu

"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

[KenpoTex]

"Will this work so that I can use it instinctively in vital combat against an opponent who is determined to prevent me from doing so and who is striving to eliminate me by fair means or foul?" -Col. Rex Applegate

I believe the above quote to be quite possibly the best "test" or "criterion" for our training. If a technique or method won't meet that standard, then it's probably not worth messing with.

"You will not rise to the occasion, you will not default to your training, you will default to the level of training you have mastered." -James Yeager

"When the great day of battle comes remember your training and remember above all else that speed and violence of attack are the sure road to success." - Gen. George S. Patton

"Forget stupid politically-correct marksmanship-based shooting schools and strip-mall shaolin temples of the partial arts. Learn how to kill with your gun and your knife and your hands so you can kill those who would kill you. Being alert without the capability to do something about things is wasted effort." -Gabe Suarez

"There are more things on this planet with fangs, claws, poisons, and scales than there are things that are warm, fuzzy, and full of love. It's a simple fact." -James Keating

[Haze]

"If I'm out numbered and my life is in danger I'll just start shooting" my first instructor said that.

[David43515]

"There`s a reason bobcats don`t hunt Grizzly bears."

Me, right before I showed my 7 yr old nephew that no, as a matter of fact, he didn`t 'get' me.

"You guys don`t get it. I`m not locked in here with you, you`re locked in here with ME!" Rorshack in the movie "Watchmen"