
Top 100 Martial Art Sayings
#1. When you are learning about a martial art, it is about respect.
Jackie Chan
#2. If cunnilingus was a martial art, I'd wear my black belt with pride.
Jodi Knight
#3. 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.
Bruce Lee
#4. Unfortunately, now in boxing people are only allowed to punch. In Judo, people are only allowed to throw. I do not despise these kinds of martial arts. What I mean is, we now find rigid forms which create differences among clans, and the world of martial art is shattered as a result.
Bruce Lee
#5. I often say that sociology is a martial art, a means of self-defense. Basically, you use it to defend yourself, without having the right to use it for unfair attacks.
Pierre Bourdieu
#6. The best way to pursue any discipline is the martial art way.
Joe Rogan
#7. My mother had a mantra: musical instrument, foreign language, martial art.
E.L. James
#8. When I was young I used to practice a martial art that was a mixture of karate, kung fu, Jujitsu, Yawara Kubotan, Aikido, Okinawan kobudo, Newaza, etc.; now I am just a theoretical samurai or a bushido scholar if you prefer.
William C. Brown
#9. My brothers are both 6 ft. 5 in., and if you have younger brothers who are bigger than you then you have to learn the ancient martial art of sarcasm.
Nick Moran
#10. I have not permitted myself to be ignorant of any martial art that exists. Why? Such ignorance is a disgrace to someone who follows the path of the martial arts.
Mas Oyama
#11. As a young kid I was in love with breakdancing. I practiced the uprock style, which is a battle style of dance that looks like fighting. It comes from the gangs in New York in the 1960s and '70s. It's beautiful, almost like a martial art, and it can be funny, too, because you make fun of each other.
Jose Parla
#12. A kata is not fixed or immoveable. Like water, it's ever changing and fits itself to the shape of the vessel containing it. However, kata are not some kind of beautiful competitive dance, but a grand martial art of self-defense - which determines life and death.
Kenwa Mabuni
#13. Self-knowledge is the basis of jeet kune do because it is effective not only for the individual's martial art but also for his life as a human being.
Bruce Lee
#14. Since karate is a martial art, you must practice with the utmost seriousness from the very beginning.
Gichin Funakoshi
#16. I think every young child can learn through any martial art. They would then learn to respect their life, respect their parents, respect their country, and respect the whole world.
Jackie Chan
#17. Aikido ain't a defensive nor offensive martial art.
It proactively halts the enemy's intention to attack.
Toba Beta
#18. Martial art is a form of expression, an expression from your inner self to your hands and legs.
Donnie Yen
#19. Nothing is more harmful to the world than a martial art that is not effective in actual self-defense.
Motobu Choki
#20. Karate-do is definitely a martial way, and its identity lies in do or principles. Any martial art without proper training of the mind turns into beastly behavior.
Shoshin Nagamine
#21. A martial art that has no rules is nothing but violence.
Kenji Tomiki
#22. Jackie Chan is a very good comedy/martial arts star. He does one kind of martial arts that Jet Li doesn't know how to do and Jet Li does a martial art that Jackie Chan doesn't know how to do. You can both go to two Chinese restaurants, but both can have different kinds of food.
Jet Li
#23. Watercress. Jesus. He knew every gun that had ever been manufactured. Every hold in every martial art. This was beyond him. What the fuck was watercress?
Lisa Marie Rice
#24. Although not considered a martial art, boxing is really a martial art. It's a very limited martial art as long as you agree to just box ... but in an actual physical fight against someone who's just a wrestler, you're going to get killed.
Joe Rogan
#25. For me, learning is a continuous process and an all-inclusive one - reading a book, learning a musical instrument or learning the martial art called taekwondo. Teach myself something new - that's my prayer.
Sonu Nigam
#26. If you had no real training, if you hadn't spent years and years studying a martial art, how would you kill the bad guy?
Chris Pine
#27. Fencing is more a sport than a martial art. It would be like basing your knowledge of roman phalanx warfare on NFL football.
Patrick Rothfuss
#28. Pretenders try to out-think their opponents as if they were playing chess. Tennis is a martial art. Instinctive fluid action is far more effective than thinking.
Anonymous
#29. I love the discipline. I love the schedule of pushing your body to an extreme and getting it to a particular type of physical shape. Learning a new self defense or some kind of martial art that I didn't know before and the loving of that is also hating that at the same time.
Jessica Biel
#30. Stunt performing is a highly structured career path - you have to gain qualifications in six different sports to a high standard. It takes four or five years and costs at least £20,000; a black belt in a martial art from scratch costs a fortune.
Steve Truglia
#31. The goal of the martial arts is not for the destruction of an opponent, but rather for self-growth and self-perfection. The practice of a martial art should be a practice of love - for the preservation of life, for the preservation of body, and for the preservation of family and friends.
Dan Inosanto
#33. The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things.
Miyamoto Musashi
#34. Each person may see a fight in different ways ... They can see more to a primal way. Others they can see in a pure artistic way ... For me I see the pure artistic way, the way that a true martial artist can show his art.
Roger Gracie
#36. There are no shortcuts because there is no end
Kyuzo Mifune
#37. I train jiu jitsu because I love jiu jitsu. But I also train knowing that my practice in this art will allow me better practice in any art. If you have learned one thing, you have learned all things, because you have learned how to learn. I can think of no more worthwhile pursuit of education.
Chris Matakas
#38. The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them
Miyamoto Musashi
#39. Where there is no style, there is no slave. Martial Arts mean honestly expressing yourself. No style. No slave.
Bruce Lee
#40. Wanting to become stronger than everybody else has no meaning.
Christian Tissier
#41. When I was a young stunt guy the director would say: "You're useless ... " But I wanted to be the best, I wanted to be a super stunt guy. That's how I built myself, because of martial arts and everything.
Jackie Chan
#43. Boxing is so loose and flowy, and martial arts is more stiff, and about strength and structure.
Taylor Lautner
#44. I recommend for everyone the study of some type of sports or athletics, particularly martial arts. Always check with your doctor first, naturally.
Frederick Lenz
#45. I train about four or five times a week. I guess I am addicted to it. I also do a lot of martial arts. More than I have done in awhile. I like to go back to martial arts because it makes me feel good.
Dolph Lundgren
#46. I'm as good as Jean-Claude Van Damme when it comes to martial arts. Sounding a little cocky aren't I
Talisa Soto
#47. A martial arts practice hall, a dojo, is a place you go to practice being the best you can be. But the true combat in a dojo is not between one person and another as most people believe it to be. The true combat in a martial arts practice hall is between the people within ourselves.
Michael Gerber
#48. Train the body and develop stamina and endurance. But the spirit of competition and power that presides over them is not good, it reflects a distorted vision of life. The root of the martial arts is not there.
Taisen Deshimaru
#49. I'm a street fighter. I'm ready for any kind of mixed martial arts that comes at me.
Ricardo Mayorga
#51. Rama is a fairly common name in India. It symbolizes an individual who is interested both in enlightenment and martial arts. I do not claim to have any past life connection with the historical Rama. It's just a name I liked.
Frederick Lenz
#52. Humility is the first rule of martial arts. Either you learn humility quickly, or you leave because your ego can't handle losing repeatedly.
Georges St-Pierre
#53. In the martial arts, introspection begets wisdom. Always see contemplation on your actions as an opportunity to improve.
Mas Oyama
#54. 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
#55. Throughout the course of my life, I have been very fortunate to have had excellent teachers - not just in meditation, but in martial arts, music, scuba diving, and in my academic education.
Frederick Lenz
#57. I've always been interested in the sport even as a young kid. I liked the sport of martial arts because I loved anything that involved contact, conflict or collision.
Brad Tavares
#58. Intelligent martial arts is not getting in battles and winning them. Intelligent martial arts is avoiding battles because battles use up energy, and you can get hurt no matter who you are.
Frederick Lenz
#60. I wanted to know what exactly martial arts is. When you look at martial arts films, the later ones became more and more exaggerated. It's like, wow, is martial arts only a show?
Wong Kar-Wai
#61. Krav Maga heightens perception and transforms fear into something more productive.
Imi Lichtenfeld
#62. Bruce Lee brought the martial arts movie to the attention of the world - and without him, I don't think that anyone would have ever heard of Jackie Chan.
Jackie Chan
#63. I really think that martial arts and music are very close to each other and both require a lot of focus and improvisation because you don't know where or when you're going to get kicked!
Hiromi
#64. I think Mixed Martial Arts is going to be a huge thing coming up in pro wrestling, and I like to think of myself as one of the first guys to try and implement that into my style.
CM Punk
#65. Train hard, get good coaching and don't forget that its mixed martial arts. Don't get tied into one style of fighting and focus on multiple disciplines.
Chuck Liddell
#66. All martial arts is simply an honest expression of one's body - with a lot of deception in between.
Bruce Lee
#67. Exchanging blows generously, which is not uncommon in some other martial arts, is unthinkable in Shaolin philosophy, because a Shaolin disciple always assumes that an opponent is competent and able to inflict damage with just one blow.
Wong Kiew Kit
#69. The real self of an artiste lies in art, so when an artiste performs, all the pain, trauma and tension get released through art, be it dancing, painting, singing, writing or even martial arts.
Mrinalini Sarabhai
#70. Zen and Buddhism have produced martial arts, because of the Buddhist injunction against weapons.
Frederick Lenz
#71. Most martial arts have to do with the mind, ultimately. The ability to be unafraid, to walk away from a fight without fear - that is control.
Frederick Lenz
#72. Do not be afraid to get close to your opponent. The closer you are, the more you will learn.
Manuel Dos Reis Machado
#73. First of all you must understand that practising martial arts means studying a certain oriental philosophy of life, otherwise it's merely a vacuous sport devoid of any significance.
William C. Brown
#74. I come from a martial arts background so kicking and punching and using your hands and your feet is more of the art that I was taught.
Katheryn Winnick
#75. The heart of our karate is real fighting.There can be no proof without real fighting. Without proof there is no trust. Without trust there is no respect. This is a definition in the world of martial arts.
Mas Oyama
#76. I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves. It is futile to argue as to which leaf, which design of branches, or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoming.
Bruce Lee
#77. I believe martial arts is always evolving and mixed martials arts is the top of the food chain.
Cung Le
#78. My health has benefited the most from practising Wing Chun.
Ip Chun
#79. Martial arts have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.
Brandon Lee
#80. Before I started studying martial arts, I had temper problems. I could definitely fly off the handle. Being raised in the south in 1956 definitely gave me some memories to latch onto for negative emotions.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
#81. The real purpose of the martial arts must be to purge oneself of petty ambitions and desire, to obtain control of one's own character.
Morihei Ueshiba
#82. Whatever one cultivates, is what one becomes.
Laozi
#83. Be satisfied, and pleased with what thou art, Act cheerfully and well thou allotted part; Enjoy the present hour, be thankful for the past, And neither fear, nor wish, the approaches of the last.
Martial
#84. Gain confidence and you banish fear.
Ed Parker
#85. Postural exercises such as yoga, Pilates, Egoscues, Alexander technique and martial arts are about avoiding pain and injury as much as helping you feel good. Attractive men and women have good posture.
Liz Miller
#86. In martial arts, the biggest enemy is self. Inside you struggle because you want to prove something.
Jet Li
#87. The martial arts are ultimately self-knowledge. A punch or a kick is not to knock the hell out of the guy in front, but to knock the hell out of your ego, your fear, or your hang-ups.
Bruce Lee
#88. There are two kinds of people who do martial arts: those who practice a thousand different kicks one time each, and those who practice one kick a thousand times minimum. You can guess which group I belong to.
Georges St-Pierre
#89. When I was young, I saw a lot of martial arts films with Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. I loved them. They are my heroes but, I'm so powerful, I'm so faster. I'm so young and so handsome like a model. I really loved them so they are my role models.
Rain
#90. I think the martial arts tradition has a big influence on our generation - we all read these novels when we were very young.
Wong Kar-Wai
#91. Aikido is not ultimately Japanese: It is an art of universal truth and international significance.
Linda Holiday
#92. While I enjoy teaching people on the basic and intermediate levels to work them up to advanced levels, my real talent is for the advanced students. You could say that I'm like a ninth-degree black belt in martial arts.
Frederick Lenz
#93. It's not what you're going to take from martial arts, it's what you have to give to martial arts
Saulo Ribeiro
#94. Fighting is an expression. It's a form of speech, and that's why they call it martial arts. It's an art.
Chael Sonnen
#95. Martial arts is not for hurting people, it's for protecting people.
Jackie Chan
#96. haragei - the art of balance and power emanating from the lower belly. Haragei was the basis of all Japanese martial arts, from sumo to karate to the almost extinct harakei. The
Eric Van Lustbader
#97. You know, women are so much cooler than guys because we can do more martial arts. Martial arts are pretty much made for women because we're quicker and we're smaller than men, and so we're faster. You girls really should take martial arts.
Milla Jovovich
#98. The children right now, the young children, everybody should go to a martial arts school. Why? Because as soon as they go to a martial arts school, they learn discipline.
Jackie Chan
#99. I just try to eat things in moderation and find exercise that I enjoy, because I'm not a gym person. I cannot go to the gym and run on the treadmill and do weights for two hours. It's the most boring thing in the world for me, so I found martial arts.
Daniella Alonso
#100. Martial arts, like any art, is an unrestricted athletic expression of an individual soul.
Bruce Lee
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