The first thing I suggest to anyone interested in studying karate is that he or she take stock of his or her physical condition and limitations. A person who is short and powerfully built with a low center of gravity would do well to investigate judo. Males or females who are already limber or want to become more flexible might find one of the Korean styles - such as taekwondo or hapkido - of interest. Someone with fast hands and good coordination who is not adverse to a hard workout should look into Japanese karate styles, such as gojo-ryu or shotokan karate. A slightly built person who is not very strong may find jujitsu or aikido appealing because these styles turn an opponent's strength against him. An older person would do well to consider tai chi, one of the most ancient of the martial arts, which is still practiced daily by millions of elderly people in China.

Chuck Norris - The Secret of Inner Strength (1988), p173

----------------------------

When pure knuckles meet pure flesh, that's pure Karate, no matter who executes it or whatever style is involved.

Ed Parker

--------

There are no superior martial arts, only superior martial artists!

Unknown

---------

First, decide exactly what it is you want. Most people never do that. Second, determine the price you’re going to have to pay to get it, and then resolve to pay that price.

H.L. Hunt

--------

If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin.

Ivan Turgenev

------------

You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.

Les Brown

--------

Start by doing what is necessary; then do what's possible, and suddenly you're doing the impossible.

St. Francis

----------

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Confucius

--------

It may seem difficult at first but everything is difficult at first.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great.

Tom Hanks

--------

You only get out of it what you put into it.

Greg Norman

----------

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.

Napoleon Hill

------------

The elevator to success is out of order. You'll have to use the stairs...one step at a time.

Joe Girard

---------

You must expect great things from yourself before you can do them.

Michael Jordan

------------

Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.

Henry Ford

---------

If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are not limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

Bruce Lee

--------

Strength doesn't come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn't.

Rikki Rogers

-----------

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you.

Fred DeVito

----------

Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better.

Jim Rohn

-------

Determine that today you will overcome yourself of the day before, tomorrow you will win over those of lesser skill, and later you will win over those of greater skill.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

President Theodore Roosevelt

---------------------------

One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth years of those mean observances of paltry decorum in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation.

Sir Walter Scott

--------------

The best fighter is not a Boxer, Karate or Judo man. The best fighter is someone who can adapt on any style. He kicks too good for a Boxer, throws too good for a Karate man, and punches too good for a Judo man

Bruce Lee

---------

It's not who's right, but who's left.

Ed Parker

---------

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

Bruce Lee

---------

It doesn't matter what your instructor can do. He won't be there to help you in the street. The only thing that matters is what you can do!

David James - Vee Arnis Jitsu

----------------------------

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is specifically your own.

Bruce Lee

---------

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

--------------------

You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

One man has enthusiasm for 30 minutes, another for 30 days, but it is the man who has it for 30 years who makes a success of his life.

Edward B. Butler, American Scientist

--------------------------- 

Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.

Mario Andretti

-------------

True perfection is unattainable. But if you chase perfection, you will catch excellence.

Vince Lombardi

---------------

We must all suffer one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

Jim Rohn

---------

Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most

Abraham Lincoln

----------------

Self-discipline begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do.

Napoleon Hill

------------

If you wish to control others you must first control yourself.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

If you desire to lead you must first serve; if you desire to serve you must first listen; before you can listen you must care.

Caleb Carter

-----------

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

Bo Bennett

---------

The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

Control your anger. If you hold anger toward others, they have control over you. Your opponent can dominate and defeat you if you allow him to get you irritated.

Miyamoto Musashi

----------------

I do not teach you anything, I just help you to know yourself.

Bruce Lee

--------

There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

He who claims to know all is a fool, for his learning has ceased; He who knows naught and knows he knows naught is the enlightened one; For his wisdom is great.

Confucius

---------

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

Bruce Lee
--------

I'd rather have ten techniques I can fight with, than a hundred that fight me.

Ed Parker
---------

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

--------

Remember, a successful fighter is one who has learned to select, correctly, the strokes he has been taught.

Bruce Lee - Tao of Jeet Kune Do, p 195

---------------------------

If you learn only methods, you'll be tied to your methods, but if you learn the principles behind the methods, you can devise your own methods.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

--------------------

I'd rather be a student of reality, than a master of fantasy.

Bill MacCumbee

---------------

The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

You can only fight the way you practice.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

How you train is how it will come out.

David James - Vee Arnis Jitsu

----------------------------

It is better to know and not need, than to need and not know.

Prof. Leonard C. Holifield, Ph.D./MA., Soke

---------------------------

Remember, practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.

Vince Lombardi

---------------

Doing 10 properly executed kicks is infinitely more valuable than doing 100 poorly executed kicks.

Brian Baker

-----------

Everything you do, if not in a relaxed state will be done at a lesser level than you are proficient.

Bruce Lee

---------

No man ever achieved worthwhile success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.

Napoleon Hill

-------------

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.

William Feather

--------------

Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!

Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa

-------------------------------

I choose to live by choice, not by chance.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

Nothing happens by itself, it all will come your way, once you understand that you have to make it come your way, by your own exertions.

Ben Stein

---------

The more you sweat the less you'll bleed!

Unknown

---------

Laziness will cause you pain.

David James - Vee Arnis Jitsu

---------------------------

Once you stop giving, you're gonna start getting!

David James - Vee Arnis Jitsu

---------------------------

You think what we do is violent, the streets are violent, what an attacker might do to you is violent, the whole situation is violent. For 30 seconds you have to become someone else! There is no effortless self-defense. You have to earn the right to make it back home safely to your family!

David James - Vee Arnis Jitsu

---------------------------

Do, or do not, there is no try.

Yoda

-----

Luke: I can’t believe it.
Yoda: That is why you fail.

-----

You will only find what you bring in.

Yoda

-----

A Black belt is a White belt that never quit.

Edward Sell

---------

Wearing a black belt does not mean you are invincible... It means you never gave up, worked past the pain, overcame the disappointments. didn't cave in to your doubts, faced your fears, and learned enough to realize how little you actually know.

Unknown

---------

Black belt is not something you get, it's something you become.

Warrior Spirit

------------

In every passionate pursuit, the pursuit counts more than the object pursued.

Bruce Lee - Tao of Jeet Kune Do, p 207

---------------------------

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

Chuck Norris - The Secret of Inner Strength, p 4

---------------------------

One thousand days of lessons for discipline; ten thousand days of lessons for mastery.

Miyamoto Musashi

---------------

You want to know the difference between a master and a beginner? The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.

Stephen McCranie

--------------

I hope that my achievements in life shall be these - that I will have fought for what was right and fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered, and that I will have given help to those who were in need, that I will have left the earth a better place for what I've done and who I've been.

Carl Thomas Hoppe

--------