Gichin Funakoshi

"Practicing a kata exactly is one thing, engaging in a real fight is another."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the perfection of the character of its participants."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"The goal of martial arts is to affect the mind and spirit, not just the body."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory nor defeat, but in the perfection of character."

- Gichin Funakoshi

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

- Gichin Funakoshi

""The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory nor defeat, but in the perfection of character.""

- Gichin Funakoshi

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

- Gichin Funakoshi

"In karate, there is no first strike. Karate is about finishing a fight before it starts."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"It is important that karate can be practiced by the young and old, men and women alike."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"When two tigers fight, one is certain to be maimed, and one to die."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"To practice kata is not to memorize an order. Find the katas that work for you, understand them, digest them & stick with them for life."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Karate always begins and ends with courtesy."

- Gichin Funakoshi

""Karate is like boiling water. If you do not heat it constantly, it will cool.""

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Always be ready to release your mind."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Think of your opponents hands and feet as swords."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Karate is like boiling water. If you do not heat it constantly, it will cool."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Karate is like boiling water, if you do not heat it constantly, it will cool."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Since karate is a martial art, you must practice with the utmost seriousness from the very beginning."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"In the past, it was expected that about three years were required to learn a single kata, and usually even an expert of considerable skill would only know three, or at most five, kata."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Once a kata has been learned, it must be practiced repeatedly until it can be applied in an emergency, for knowledge of just the sequence of a form in Karate is useless."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"You may train for a 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 a dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of Karate."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Spirit first, technique second."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"There is no place in contemporary Karate 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 Shotokan 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 may orderly progress into man’s future."

- Gichin Funakoshi

""Spirit first, technique second.""

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Put Karate into your everyday living, that is how you will see true beauty."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"A student well versed in even one technique will naturally see corresponding points in other techniques. A upper level punch, a lower punch, a front punch and a reverse punch are all essentially the same. Looking over thirty-odd kata, he should be able to see that they are essentially variations on just a handful."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"No matter how you may excel in the art of Karate, and in your scholastic endeavors, nothing is more important than your behavior and your humanity as observed in daily life."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Seek perfection of character. Be faithful. Endeavor. Respect others. Refrain from violent behaviour."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"There is no first strike in karate."

- Gichin Funakoshi