Martial Artist Quotes

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.

It is true that the mental aspect of kung-fu is the desired end; however, to achieve this end, technical skill must come first.

Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential.

It's the law of averages: put in more, come out with more.

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

To be bound by traditional martial art style or styles is the way of the mindless, enslaved martial artist. But to be inspired by the traditional martial art and to achieve further heights is the way of genius.

To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to either spend or waste and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.

Knowledge , surely, is always of time , whereas knowing is not of time. Knowledge is from a source, from accumulation, from conclusion, while knowing is a movement.

Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it.

You must have complete determination. The worst opponent you can come across is one whose aim has become an obsession.

Fear comes from uncertainty; we can eliminate the fear within us when we know ourselves better.

Dedication, absolute dedication, is what keeps one ahead!

People try to hold onto the sameness. This holding onto prevents growth.

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

You cannot force the Now. — But can you neither condemn nor justify and yet be extraordinarily alive as you walk on? You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open.

To me defeat in anything is merely temporary. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth.

If you want to learn to swim you have to throw yourself in the water.

Now I see that I will never find the light Unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, Consuming myself.

I have always been a martial artist by choice, an actor by profession, but above all, am actualising myself to be an artist of life.

Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth.

The point is the doing of them rather than the accomplishments . There is no actor but the action; there is no experiencer but the experience.

Persistence, persistence, and persistence. The Power can be created and maintained through daily practice - continuous effort.

Be a calm beholder of what is happening around you.

The usefulness of the cup is its emptiness.

The past is no more; the future not yet. Nothing exists except the here and now. Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at our hands.

Anxiety is the gap between the NOW and the THEN. So if you are in the NOW, you can't be anxious, because your excitement flows immediately into ongoing spontaneous activity.

Go toward self-actualization rather than self-image actualization... Search within... for honest self- expression.

The biggest adversary in our life is ourselves. We are what we are, in a sense, because of the dominating thoughts we allow to gather in our head. All concepts of self-improvement, all actions and paths we take, relate solely to our abstract image of ourselves. Life is limited only by how we really see ourselves and feel about our being. A great deal of pure self-knowledge and inner understanding allows us to lay an all-important foundation for the structure of our life from which we can perceive and take the right avenues.

Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.

Let nature take its course and your tools will strike at the right moment.

The second-hand artist blindly following his sensei or sifu accepts his pattern. As a result, his action is and , more importantly, his thinking become mechanical. His responses become automatic, according to set patterns, making him narrow and limited.

I wish neither to possess nor to be possessed. I no longer covet 'paradise'. More important, I no longer fear 'hell'. The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning but I did not take it. My ailment came from within myself, but I did not observe it, until this moment. Now I see that I will never find the light unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, consuming myself.

We shall find the answer when we examine the problem, the problem is never apart from the answer, the problem IS the answer, understanding the problem dissolves the problem.

Independent inquiry is needed in your search for truth, not dependence on anyone else's view or a mere book.

Man, he is constantly growing and when he is bound by a set pattern of ideas or way of doing things, that's when he stops growing

We [tend to] have more faith in what we imitate than in what we originate. We [often feel that we] cannot derive a sense of absolute certitude from anything which has its root in us. The most poignant sense of insecurity comes from standing alone; we are not alone when we imitate.

Know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience. - To realize that it's just an inconvenience, that it is not a catastrophe, but just an unpleasantness, is part of coming into your own, part of waking up.

Where there is no style, there is no slave. Martial Arts mean honestly expressing yourself. No style. No slave.

Obey the principles without being bound by them.

'What is' is more important than 'what should be.' Too many people are looking at 'what is' from a position of thinking 'what should be'.

Observe what is with undivided awareness.

The reward is found in the work.

Simplicity of expression rather than complexity of form.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.

A teacher is never a giver of truth; he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself.

Art lives where absolute freedom is, because where it is not, there can be no creativity.

The highest technique is to have no technique. My technique is a result of your technique; my movement is a result of your movement.

The meaning of life is that it is to be lived.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

Everyone wants to learn how to win, but no one wants to learn how to accept defeat.

After all, all knowledge simply means self-knowledge.

Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life! Do not be concerned with escaping safely- lay your life before him!!

Get maximum effect from minimum effort.

Bring the mind into sharp focus and make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere. The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes and even ordinary thought itself.

Cease negative mental chattering. If you think a thing is impossible, you'll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.

A good martial artist does not become tend but ready, not thinking but jet not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come.

Understand your limitations and capitalize on them.

The unconditioned mind intuits truth.

It is useless to try to stir the dirt Out of the muddy water, As it will become murkier. But leave it alone, And if it should be cleared; It will become clear by itself.