Martial Arts Quotations: Set 1
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