Karate Quotes - Page 2

• Many Karate teachers teach a watered down style - no hip action and no depth of punching - so it is easy to say that these teachers have no depth to their knowledge. You are what your teacher is, and if he knows a lot, you should be able to demonstrate this knowledge.

  Higa Yuchoku

  Teacher, Art, Style

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• In karate, hitting, thrusting, and kicking are not the only methods, throwing techniques and pressure against joints are included … all these techniques should be studied referring to basic kata

  Gichin Funakoshi

  Technique, Kicking, Hitting

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• A punch should stay like a treasure in the sleeve. It should not be used indiscrimately.

  Chotoku Kyan

  Treasure, Martial Arts, Used

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• Under conditions of peace the warlike man attacks himself.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Peace, War, Men

  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1973). “Beyond good and evil: prelude to a philosophy of the future”, Penguin Classics

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• Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water.

  Bruce Lee

  Blank Mind, Empty Mind, Water

  Bruce Lee (2015). “Bruce Lee The Tao of Gung Fu: A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art”, p.138, Tuttle Publishing

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• There is no place in contemporary Karate-do for different schools. Some instructors, I know, claim to have invented new and unusual kata, and so they arrogate to themselves the right to be called founders of "schools". Indeed, I have heard myself and my colleagues referred to as the Shoto-kan school, but I strongly object to this attempt at classification. My belief is that all these "schools" should be amalgamated into one so that Karate-do may pursue and orderly and useful progress into man's future.

  Gichin Funakoshi

  Art, School, Men

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• Hoping to see karate included in the universal physical education taught in our public schools, I set about revising the kata so as to make them as simple as possible. Times change, the world changes, and obviously the martial arts must change too. The karate that high school students practice today is not the same karate that was practiced even as recently as ten years ago [this book was written in 1956], and it is a long way indeed from the karate I learned when I was a child in Okinawa.

  Gichin Funakoshi

  Art, Children, Book

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• 

  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

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Friends

  "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey". Documentary, Action, Biography, 2000.

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• 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

  Art, Lying, Training

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• There is no first strike in Karate.

  Gichin Funakoshi

  Firsts, Martial Arts, Strikes

  Gichin Funakoshi, Genwa Nakasone, Jotaro Takagi (2003). “空手道二十訓: The Spiritual Legacy of the Master”, p.23, Kodansha International

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• Whatever luck I had, I made. I was never a natural athlete, but I paid my dues in sweat and concentration and took the time necessary to learn karate and become world champion.

  Chuck Norris

  Athlete, Sweat, Champion

  Chuck Norris, Joe Hyams (1989). “The secret of inner strength: my story”, Diamond Books

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• Karate-do may be referred to as the conflict within yourself, or a life-long marathon which can be won only through self-discipline, hard training, and your own creative efforts.

  Shoshin Nagamine

  Self, Discipline, Long

  Shoshin Nagamine (2011). “Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do”, p.45, Tuttle Publishing

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• Karate is a technique that permits one to defend himself with his bare hands and fists without weapons.

  Gichin Funakoshi

  Hands, Technique, Fists

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• To all those whose progress remains hampered by ego-related distractions, let humility - the spiritual cornerstone upon which Karate rests - serve to remind one to place virtue before vice, values before vanity and principles before personalities.

  Matsumura Sokon

  Spiritual, Art, Humility

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• Karate-Do is a lifetime study

  Kenwa Mabuni

  Study, Lifetime

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• The correct understanding of Karate and its proper use is Karate-do. One who truly trains in this do [way] and actually understands Karate-do is never easily drawn into a fight.

  Gichin Funakoshi

  Fighting, Understanding, Use

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• Karate aims to build character, improve human behavior, and cultivate modesty; it does not, however, guarantee it.

  Yasuhiro Konishi

  Art, Character, Doe

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• Each one of us starts Karate with some particular reason: to be a good fighter, to keep in good shape, to protect oneself. I wanted to become very strong myself when I first began. But Karate training soon teaches that real strength is facing oneself strictly, with severe eyes. This is the first condition of martial arts training. Therefore, all karateka must be strong inwardly, but quite gentle to others. As we train together, each contributing to a good atmosphere, let's try to bring out that serious strong mentality from deep inside.

  Tsutomu Ohshima

  Art, Strong, Real

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• Do not fall into the trap of thinking that just because a kata begins to the left that the opponent is attacking from the left.

  Kenwa Mabuni

  Art, Fall, Thinking

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• 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

  Beautiful, Art, Fighting

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• It's amazing because people come up to me and say, 'Chuck, you're the luckiest guy in the world to be a world karate champion and a movie and TV star.' When they say this to me, I kind of smile because luck had nothing to do with it; God had everything to do with it.

  Chuck Norris

  Stars, People, Guy

  Source: www.cbn.com

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• Once a kata has been learned, it must be practised repeatedly until it can be applied in an emergency, for knowledge of just the sequence of a kata in karate is useless.

  Gichin Funakoshi

  Useless, Emergencies, Martial Arts

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• Look eye! Always look eye!

  Pat Morita

  Eye, Looks

  "Fictional character: Mr. Miyagi". "The Karate Kid", www.imdb.com. 1984.

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• Karate cannot be adequately learned in a short space of time. Like a torpid bull, regardless of how slowly it moves, it will eventually cover a thousand miles. So too, for one who resolves to study Karate diligently two or three hours every day. After three or four years of unremitting effort one's body will undergo a great transformation revealing the very essence of Karate.

  Anko Itosu

  Art, Moving, Years

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• Should you desire the great tranquility prepare to sweat white beads.

  Hakuin Ekaku

  Art, Sweat, Desire

  "Zen and the Art of Poker: Timeless Secrets to Transform Your Game". Book by Larry W. Phillips, 1999.

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