Empowering Karate Inspirational Quotes to Fuel Your Journey

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

- Gichin Funakoshi

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

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Karate begins and ends with courtesy."

- Anko Itosu

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

- Gichin Funakoshi

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

- Yasuhiro Konishi

"The more understanding you have about Karate, the less you need to change or modify it."

- Tsuguo Sakumoto

"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."

- Yuchoku Higa

"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

"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."

- Sokon ‘Bushi’ Matsumura

"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

"In the old days we trained Karate as a martial art, but now they train Karate as a gymnastic sport. I think we must avoid treating Karate as a sport – it must be a martial art at all times! Your fingers and the tips of your toes must be like arrows, your arms must be like iron. You have to think that if you kick, you try to kick the enemy dead. If you punch, you must thrust to kill. If you strike, then you strike to kill the enemy. This is the spirit you need in order to progress in your training."

- Choshin Chibana

"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

"Our teachers did not give us a clear explanation of the kata from old times. I must find the features and meaning of each form by my own study and effort, by repeating the exercises of form through training."

- Tsuyoshi Chitose

"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

"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

"Karate 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

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

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Karate is a lifetime study."

- Kenwa Mabuni

"A champion is someone who gets up when they can't."

- Jack Dempsey

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

- Gichin Funakoshi

"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

"Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick."

- Bruce Lee

"Unless you puke, faint, or die, keep going."

- Jillian Michaels

"Doubt is only removed by action. If you're not working then that's where doubt comes in."

- Conor McGregor

"Emotion can be the enemy, if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotion, because the body always follows the mind."

- Bruce Lee

"Knowledge is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do."

- Bruce Lee

"You carry on no matter what the obstacles. You simply refuse to give up ... and, when the going gets tough, you get tougher. And you win."

- Vince Lombardi

"The main thing Karate offers to me is a philosophy of life. The philosophy of Karate is respect and discipline. You give 100% of whatever you do, in every activity."

- Lyoto Machida

"Being a warrior is not about the act of fighting. It's about being so prepared to face a challenge and believing so strongly in the cause you are fighting for that you refuse to quit."

- Richard Machowicz

"You have to know you can win. You have to think you can win. You have to feel you can win."

- Sugar Ray Leonard

"Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."

- Bruce Lee

"Karate always begins and ends with courtesy."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"You're never a loser until you quit trying."

- Mike Ditka

"Hard days are the best because that's when champions are made."

- Gabby Douglas

"Be respectful of your Sensei."

- Fumio Demura

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

- Gichin Funakoshi

"Better learn balance. Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up go home. Understand?"

- Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."

- Bruce Lee

"Martial arts are a vehicle for developing your human potential."

- Joe Rogan

"In the martial arts, introspection begets wisdom. Always see contemplation on your actions as an opportunity to improve."

- Soke Behzad Ahmadi

"Martial arts is not about fighting; it's about building character."

- Bo Bennett

"Martial Arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserve – as if you might die in the next instant."

- Taisen Deshimaru

"You don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great."

- Zig Ziglar

"If you want to learn to swim, jump into the water. On dry land, no frame of mind is ever going to help you."

- Bruce Lee

"The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough."

- Og Mandino

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

- Bruce Lee

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"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

"Today is victory over yourself of yesterday, tomorrow is your victory over lesser men."

- Miyamoto Musashi

"Karate is not about techniques and their execution, but about boldness, integrity and fight for justice and the common good."

- Soke Behzad Ahmadi

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"What you habitually think largely determines what you will ultimately become."

- Bruce Lee

"The ultimate goal in Karate is to defeat opponents in a real-life-or-death situation."

- Teruyuki Higa

"The successful warrior is the average person, with laser-like focus."

- Bruce Lee

"A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Not thinking, yet not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come."

- Bruce Lee

"The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest."

- Bruce Lee

"Karate is not about techniques and their execution, but about perfecting one's character."

- Funakoshi

"The heart of our karate is real fighting. There can be no proof without real fighting."

- Mas Oyama

"Fear comes from uncertainty; we can eliminate the fear within us when we know ourselves better."

- Bruce Lee

"When I go to bed at night, I’m a better martial artist than when I woke up this morning."

- Georges St. Pierre

"The very essence of martial arts is the thirst for knowledge and the truth about ourselves."

- Frank Shamrock

"You need balance. That’s why I like martial arts: it always tells you how to control your body, your mind, your heart."

- Jet Li

"Karate training soon teaches that real strength is facing oneself strictly with severe eyes. This is the first condition of martial arts training."

- Tsutomu Ohshima

"The martial arts are based upon understanding, hard work and a total comprehension of skills."

- Bruce Lee

"Your dreams are worth it. Persevere. Your focus is your power. Harness it."

- Amy Leigh Mercree

"There’s a part of martial arts where we need humility and respect."

- Eddie Alvarez

"Do not fight with the strength, absorb it and it flows, use it."

- Ip Man

"A good instructor teaches students how to fight, a great instructor teaches students how to survive."

- Ricardo Almeida

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

- Gichin Funakoshi

"The path of Martial Arts begins and ends with courtesy. So be genuinely polite on every occasion."

- Mas Oyama

"Never take your eyes off your opponent…even when you’re bowing!"

- Bruce Lee

"Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it."

- Bruce Lee

"Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them."

- Bruce Lee

"A true martial artist doesn't live in balance; he creates it."

- Dan Millman

"Train with the energy of a warrior and soon you will have the heart of a warrior."

- Shifu Yan Lei

"If you cannot love the pain, you can at least love the lessons it teaches."

- Andrew Davidson

"If I go as hard as I can in practice, make sure it's a lot harder than a fight, then the fight's going to be easy."

- Rashad Evans

"Success is taking what you know, and creating the best you that you can be."

- Tim Fargo

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."

- Henry Ford

"You should never have a power, in any area, with the purpose of harming someone."

- Helio Gracie

"The true mark of maturity is when someone hurts you and you try and understand their situation instead of hurting them back."

- Ryron Gracie

"A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at."

- Bruce Lee

"If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it."

- Jimmy Demaret

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination."

- Tommy Lasorda

"Do not place hope in finding a secret technique. Polish the mind through ceaseless training; that is the key to effective techniques."

- Kyuzo Mifune

"Never put passion before principle. Even if win, you lose."

- Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid

"Stick to a task, 'til it sticks to you, because beginners are many, but finishers are few."

- Thomas S. Monson

"Hard work can't be ignored forever."

- John Moraga

"You win battles by knowing the enemy's timing, and using a timing that the enemy does not expect."

- Miyamoto Musashi

"The principle is competing against yourself. It's about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before."

- Steve Young

"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

"It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up."

- Vince Lombardi

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will."

- Vince Lombardi

"A punch should stay like a treasure in the sleeve. It should not be used indiscriminately."

- Chotoku Kyan

"The best fighter is never angry."

- Lao Tzu

"Martial art is a form of expression, an expression from your inner self to your hands and legs."

- Donnie Yen

"The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is."

- Bruce Lee

"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer."

- Bruce Lee

"Learning Kung fu has only one purpose: To train one’s reaction into a natural response. Such reaction is essential."

- Yuan Xiu Gang

"The opposite of courage is conformity."

- Rickson Gracie

"In the old days we trained Karate as a martial art, but now they train Karate as a gymnastic sport. I think we must avoid treating Karate as a sport – it must be a martial art at all times!"

- Choshin Chibana

"The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions."

- Miyamoto Musashi

"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."

- Bertrand Russell

"A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough."

- Bruce Lee

"No such thing bad student. Only bad teacher."

- Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid

"Some Warriors look fierce, but are mild. Some seem timid, but are vicious. Look beyond appearances; position yourself for the advantage."

- Deng Ming-Dao

"A warrior does not give up what he loves, he finds the love in what he does."

- Dan Millman

"It isn't what you do, but how you do it."

- Rafa Mendes

"In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate."

- Isaac Asimov

"Expect problems and eat them for breakfast."

- Alfred A. Montapert

"I’m a street fighter. I’m ready for any kind of mixed martial arts that comes at me."

- Ricardo Mayorga

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can’t hit what the eyes can’t see."

- Muhammad Ali

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

- Albert Pujols

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

- Steve Jobs

"The mind is everything. What you think, you become."

- Buddha

"Everyone must choose one of two pains: The pain of discipline or the pain of regret."

- Jim Rohn

"Everybody’s beatable. Mixed martial arts, there are many ways to win, and that also means there are many ways to lose, as well."

- Bas Rutten

"There is no finish line. When you reach one goal, find a new one."

- Chuck Norris

"When it comes to technique, work on it over and over again until you have mastered it."

- Saenchai

"Only after several years of training did I come to realize that the deepest purpose of the martial arts is to serve as a vehicle for personal spiritual development."

- Joe Hyams

"The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried."

- Stephen McCranie

"The practice of a martial art should be a practice of love – for the preservation of life, for the preservation of the body, and for the preservation of family and friends."

- Dan Inosanto

"A student’s mentality in learning martial arts is to overcome one’s problems."

- Ip Chun

"If you’re going through hell, keep going!"

- Winston Churchill

"You don’t have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great."

- Zig Ziglar

"Imagine if every child learned the respect, courtesy, and discipline that martial arts teaches. The world would be a different place."

- Chris Wahmond

"I dislike death, however, there are some things I dislike more than death. Therefore, there are times when I will not avoid danger."

- Mencius

"The fighter who gives their all will be around next year. Don’t save anything. Give it all you got."

- George Foreman

"I don’t count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count."

- Muhammad Ali

"My worst day in the gym is still more fun than my best day in the office!"

- Rob Mills

"The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat."

- Navy SEALs creed

"Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything."

- Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid

"He who is afraid of a thing gives it power over him."

- Moorish Proverb

"For me, martial arts is a search for something inside. It’s not just a physical discipline."

- Brandon Lee

"One of the greatest gifts of the martial arts is that they ultimately guide us to new levels of spirituality."

- Joseph Cardillo

"I see martial arts as moving forms of meditation. When you’re sparring or drilling techniques, you can’t think of anything else."

- Joe Rogan

"Martial arts was really the first thing in my life that I followed through on and accomplished a degree of proficiency for."

- Chuck Norris

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

- Lao Tzu

"The more you practice, the luckier you get."

- Gary Player

"You should make it a habit of putting your all into every little thing you do."

- Koichi Tohei

"The ultimate goal in Karate is to defeat opponents in a real life-or-death situation."

- Teruyuki Higa

"If we overcome those enemies that attack us from within, we can attain a true victory over any attack from without."

- Morihei Ueshiba

"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

"Nothing is more harmful to the world than a martial art that is not effective in actual self-defense."

- Choki Motobu

"When I started training martial arts, I learned about respect."

- Anderson Silva

"Spirit first, technique second."

- Gichin Funakoshi

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."

- Mark Twain

"True martial arts is universal, simple, and practical. Anything else is too complex to be used in combat."

- Soke Behzad Ahmadi

"No matter how you excel in the art of “Ti” (Okinawan precursor to Karate), and in your scholastic endeavors, nothing is more important than your behavior and humanity as observed in daily life."

- Junsoku Uekata

"Even in the forty years that I have been practicing Karate, the changes have been many. It would be interesting to be able to go back in time, to the point when the kata were created, and study them."

- Shigeru Egami

"I so admire the discipline, the work ethic, and the sacrifices fighters make to master all aspects of mixed martial arts."

- Tami Hoag

"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

"All kata use the so-called postures (kamae). In fact, there are many kinds of postures and many kinds of kata. While learning these postures should not be totally ignored, we must be careful not to overlook that they are just forms or templates of sort; it is the function of their application which needs to be mastered."

- Choki Motobu

"We should open Karate to the public and receive criticism, opinions and studies from other prominent fighting artists."

- Chojun Miyagi

"In the martial arts, the relationship of Master and disciple is a peculiar one."

- Tri Thong Dang

"I had a really long and great career, and I believe I left a deep mark in the martial arts. I have no regrets."

- Mirko Cro Cop

"The martial arts are non-combative because these martial artists think actual fighting doesn’t express goodness or mystic insight."

- Keith Vargo

"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

"The techniques of kata have their limits and were never intended to be used against an opponent in an arena or on a battlefield."

- Choki Motobu

"Fighting – think of it as you need 100 answers to one question."

- Damien Trainor

"Karate has no philosophy. Some people think that the tradition of Karate came from Buddhism and Karate has a connection with the absolute, space and universe, but I don’t believe in that. My philosophy is to knock my opponent out, due to the use of only one technique. One finishing blow!"

- Mikio Yahara

"My old ways of Karate was not readily accepted by everyone. They thought it was too outdated and too crude – I think it was just too hard or maybe my training methods were too severe. Whatever it was, it was the way I learned and the way I taught. It was only later, when the Americans came to learn, that I changed my ways."

- Hohan Soken

"Recently, some Karate men have used funny and strange sounding names for their own styles of Karate. A Karate man of this kind does not have a real understanding or knowledge of the orthodox Karate or he has no confidence in his ability as a Karate man. He uses these funny sounding names for his own style of Karate as an evasive answer when he has a hard time demonstrating a very difficult technique or even an incomplete one. […] Karate does not have any one style. Karate molds an individual to be the only object of defense or offense and, through this, it teaches the fundamental concept of self-protection."

- Kanken Toyama

"Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe."

- John Milton

"Of old the expert in battle would first make himself invincible and then wait for his enemy to expose his vulnerability."

- Sun Tzu

"I am a shark, the ground is my ocean, and most people can’t even swim."

- Rickson Gracie

"Never depart from the way of martial arts."

- Miyamoto Musashi

"Any martial art without proper training of the mind turns into beastly behavior."

- Shoshin Nagamine

"You can only fight the way you practice."

- Miyamoto Musashi

"Animals and martial arts are kinda linked together, or humans took animals’ strength and turned them into martial arts moves hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago, however, you want to say."

- Mike Perry

"You must have a dragon hidden inside of you. When you need, you let that dragon out."

- Anderson Silva

"Only a fool does something new and thinks it will work for sure. Only a failure refuses to try something that might not work."

- Seth Godin

"Martial arts is not about picking your fights and picking how things go; it’s about adapting to how things are."

- Gunnar Nelson

"You are going to have to suffer – over a long time. There really is no such thing as a free lunch."

- Iain Armstrong

"If you think only of hitting, springing, striking, or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him."

- Miyamoto Musashi

"Karate is a very boring sport, but when you know the technique you can go further and further."

- Jean-Claude Van Damme

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"It is necessary to drink alcohol and pursue other fun human activities. The art (Karate) of someone who is too serious has no flavor."

- Choki Motobu

"A rock is rounded and smoothed by many years of bouncing in the ocean, a karateka, like a rock, advances himself by many years of practice."

"It's better to be a weapon than to just have a weapon."

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

"Pain is not judgmental, people are."

"Martial arts begin and end with respect."

"A black belt is a white belt who never quit."

"The flower of flowers is the Sakura - Cherry Blossom. The Samurai is the man among men."

"In martial arts, the journey is the reward."

"The fastest draw is when the sword never leaves the scabbard. The strongest way to block, is never to provoke a blow. And the cleanest cut is the one withheld."

"who has never had his metal tested."

"The bigger they are the harder they fall. The smaller they are the further they fly!"

"There are two rules for being successful in Martial Arts. Rule 1: Never tell others everything you know."

"In martial arts, the biggest opponent you will ever face is yourself."

"True martial artists do not fight to win, they fight to better themselves."

"Martial arts are less about fighting others and more about fighting ourselves. The real value lies in conquering one's own limitations."

"A warrior may choose pacifism; others are condemned to it."

"Your body can stand almost anything. It's your mind you have to convince."

"I shall give you a brief taste of death, so that you may recognize it when it comes again."

"A black belt holds your robe together."

"Pain is weakness leaving the body."

"A black belt is a white belt who never gave up."

"In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take."

"The harder you work for something, the greater you'll feel when you achieve it."

- Unknown

"The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle."

"The only bad workout is the one that didn't happen."

"The true competitor isn't the one who wins, but the one who gives their best effort."

"Karate is not for the faint-hearted. It's about pushing yourself to the limit and beyond."

"Karate is a lifelong journey of self-discovery and self-improvement."

"It's not about being better than someone else, it's about being better than you were yesterday."

"Don't block with your face"