Words of Wisdom by Famous Martial Artists to Motivate You

Feeling exhausted from having to practice all day at the MAC? Planning to quit because you simply can’t get to master a new technique your instructor is teaching the class? Whatever you are feeling today, giving up is definitely not an option when it comes to mastering martial arts. To motivate you to push your limit and be the best that you can be, here are some inspiring words of wisdom to live by:

"Train tirelessly to defeat the greatest enemy, yourself, and to discover the greatest master, yourself."

-Amituofo

"In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situations without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit."

-Miyamoto Musashi

"I'm not teaching you how to fight. I am teaching you how to control evil. That's what we are really doing here."

-Sake Masaaki Hatsumi

"It's okay to lose to your opponent. It's never okay to lose to fear."

-Chojun Miyagi

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

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

"The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory nor defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants"

-Gichin Funakoshi

“Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter! Try again. Fail again. Fail better!

Understand? Good. Play.”

- Masaaki Hatsumi

"Never forget that, at the most, the teacher can give you fifteen percent of the art. The rest you have to get for yourself through practise and hard work. I can show you the path but I can not walk it for you.”

-Master Tan Soh Tin

“The Chinese words ‘kung fu’ translate more or less as ‘a man hard at work over a long time’. If you want to unlock the full power of kung fu, it is not going to be easy: you are going to have to work, you are going to have to sacrifice and you are going to have to suffer – over a long time. There really is no such thing as a free lunch.”

-Master Iain Armstrong