The Arts Quotes

. . as A martial arts teacher, we should never forget the first time we stepped onto the Dojo ground, remembering this, we will be better equipped to teach the next generation of Karate practitioners

Thoreau went to the woods. I went to the mats.

We call it training. Not because we are training for Jiu Jitsu. We are training for life.

Jiu Jitsu can be a source of total transparency such as a mirror, but it takes a conscious choice to see what it has to say.

Do not seek victory, for victory in itself will not serve you. Seek to understand what made the victory possible.

An arm bar in a vacuum is worthless. It is the realization of the truths which constitute that arm bar that is the real treasure we seek.

For the sincere student, it mustn't be enough to simply understand Jiu Jitsu. We must seek to understand ourselves.

I believe that which you study is only matched in importance by the sincerity with which you approach it.

There is no concrete way to play Jiu Jitsu, and this is why so many different types of people find joy in it.

. . . most martial artists want to know how A technique is done, A seasoned Sensei will demonstrate why

The essence of warrior traits are demonstrated by : integrity with self, and honesty with others

Make the difficult habitual, the habitual easy, and the easy beautiful.

The broadest possible exercise of imagination is the thing most conducive to human health, individual and global

When the business people get done with the arts, all that’s left will be entertainment.

Any self-defense situation has the potential to quickly become A 'life and death' situation, therefore your practice of martial arts should be undertaken, as if your very life depends on it . . .

When there is no tension between the inner beingness and that which is being expressed, there is grace.

Jiu Jitsu is a baptism by combat, and serves a purpose in the inner life of the individual that has always existed, but our modern culture fails to acknowledge.

Plateaus are a manifestation of the law of diminishing returns, and when we reach one it simply means that it is time to adjust our methods.

After I received my blue belt, I soon recognized that the belts were simply an external representation of an inner experience, and that they mattered little compared to the person I was becoming.

You are never as good as you think you are, and you are never as bad as you believe yourself to be.

Jiu Jitsu is a vehicle for self-discovery and growth. It reminds me of my ego, of my insecurities, and of my shortcomings.

If he can't reach you he can't hit youIf he can't hit you he can't hurt you

I can think of no more worthwhile aim than pursuing mastery in this craft while transcending one's own limitations.

By becoming a black belt, you will become whatever it is you wanted to be in the first place, and Jiu Jitsu will have served its aim.

When a show ends, for a few days, my body sizzles with leftover energy, like a tree in the wake of a lightning strike.

The first few weeks of school were always surreal, like you landed on an alien planet with strange teachers and unfamiliar classrooms, even though the lockers and cafeteria seemed familiar.

I don't like the dark arts, but I like darkness in art.

She missed -- without knowing what she missed-- paints and crayons

I believe books should be like a prime rib steak ~ good and thick.

Every exceptional writer holds a Master of Arts in Daydreaming.

Many existing top 20 Scottish writers have flourished in part because of good turns done by institutions, arts community, libraries and bookshops.

We must not learn to try harder. The key is to learn how not to try in the first place.

Any advanced student will tell you the best way to recover guard is simply not to get your guard passed in the first place.

In Jiu Jitsu, we often fall into the trap of simply trying a technique "harder, " rather than recognizing that it is a poorly chosen tool for the task at hand.

A threat should never be spoken, your enemy should not be told of your intentions. Either take decisive action or refrain from it, but never threaten

We didn't come to the world just to entertain, we came to play remarkable roles, and our reward is to see you doing more than us.

The arts vividly illustrate the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

Music is exciting and easy to enjoy, the rhythm and voice.It does not need interpretation. That is why it is called the Universal Language.

But the culture-vultures and the intellectual snobs, and the self-appointed guardians of the Muses, often frighten off the average person from the free development of this appetite.

Japanese had never seen a Western-style circus, and most of them had probably never seen foreigners, either.

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

just as a stool requires three legs to stand upright so the taekwondoist must cultivate basic skills, meaningful forms, and effective sparring in order to have both feet firmly planted in the art

We are never truly ourselves as we are mid-roll.

Unless we can interpret that ecstatic trip in a way that better grounds our physical reality, trance isn’t worth much.

. . . for any worthwhile martial arts skill to be pragmatic, it has to be done live, otherwise it is of limited or no use in actual combat

Justice is rendering each killer that which is his due.

Lewis was studying literary history with the present and future in mind.

Reading can break us out of the tunnel vision of the narrow specialty and lead us into many intriguing and important avenues of thought.

I like the way Twitter makes one be more concise.It looks like someone is saying sometthing wise

Autopilot is great, and removal of thought is one of the highest ideals of training. But removal of thought in the moment must be preceded by purposeful thought beforehand.