These karate quotes will inspire you. Karate is a method developed in Japan of defending oneself without the use of weapons by striking sensitive areas on an attacker’s body with the hands, elbows, knees, or feet.
A collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging karate quotes, karate sayings, and karate proverbs.
Famous Karate Quotes
- “Karate is a form of martial arts in which people who have had years and years of training can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the history of the world.” ~ Dave Barry
- “Karate is like boiling water, if you do not heat it constantly, it will cool.” ~ 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
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“Karate is a defensive art from beginning to end.” ~ 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-do.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “Karate-do strives internally to train the mind to develop a clear conscience, enabling one to face the world honestly, while externally developing strength to the point where one may overcome even ferocious wild animals. Mind and technique become one in true karate.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “When you look at life think in terms of karate. But remember that karate is not only karate — it is life.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
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“Since karate is a martial art, you must practice with the utmost seriousness from the very beginning.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “True karate is this: that in daily life one’s mind and body be trained and developed in a spirit of humility, and that in critical times, one be devoted utterly to the cause of justice.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “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
- “Karate begins and ends with courtesy.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
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“The spirit of karate practice and the elements of training are applicable to each and every aspect of our daily lives.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “Students of any art, including Karate-do must never forget the cultivation of the mind and the body.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “There is no first strike in 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
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“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” ~ Confucius
- “Karate is a technique that permits one to defend himself with his bare hands and fists without weapons.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” ~ Bruce Lee
- “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
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“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.” ~ Laozi
- “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.” ~ Higa Yuchoku
- “You have the power to fulfill your dreams!” ~ Tae Yun Kim
- “The techniques should not be practiced simply so they can be performed in the kata. Since karate is a fighting art each technique and movement has its own meaning. The karateka must consider their meaning, how and why they are effective, and practice accordingly” ~ Shigeru Egami
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“Karate-Do is a lifetime study” ~ Kenwa Mabuni
- “Seek perfection of character. Be faithful. Endeavor. Respect others. Refrain from violent behavior.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi , Karate quotes respect
- “The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “Karate’s a very boring sport, but when you know the technique you can go further and further.” ~ Jean-Claude Van Damme
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“Karate is for life, not points.” ~ David Walker
- “Put Karate into your everyday living, that is how you will see true beauty.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “The best fighter is never angry.” ~ Laozi
- “A punch should stay like a treasure in the sleeve. It should not be used indiscriminately.” ~ Chotoku Kyan
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“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water.” ~ Bruce Lee
- “There is no place in contemporary Karate-do 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 Shoto-kan 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-do may pursue and orderly and useful progress into man’s future.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “Hoping to see karate included in the universal physical education taught in our public schools, I set about revising the kata so as to make them as simple as possible. Times change, the world changes, and obviously the martial arts must change too. The karate that high school students practice today is not the same karate that was practiced even as recently as ten years ago [this book was written in 1956], and it is a long way indeed from the karate I learned when I was a child in Okinawa.” ~ 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
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“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” ~ Archilochus
- “Karate-do 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
- “Karate aims to build character, improve human behavior, and cultivate modesty; it does not, however, guarantee it.” ~ Yasuhiro Konishi
- “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.” ~ Matsumura Sokon
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“The correct understanding of Karate and its proper use is Karate-do. One who truly trains in this do [way] and actually understands Karate-do is never easily drawn into a fight.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “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
- “Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to go to his class.” ~ Choi Hong Hi
- “Under conditions of peace, the warlike man attacks himself.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
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“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 kata in karate is useless.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “It’s amazing because people come up to me and say, ‘Chuck, you’re the luckiest guy in the world to be a world karate champion and a movie and TV star.’ When they say this to me, I kind of smile because luck had nothing to do with it; God had everything to do with it.” ~ Chuck Norris
- “Look eye! Always look eye!” ~ Pat Morita
- “Should you desire the great tranquility prepare to sweat white beads.” ~ Hakuin Ekaku
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“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
- “Even after many years, kata practice is never finished, for there is always something new to be learned about executing a movement.” ~ Shoshin Nagamine
- “Karate-do begins with courtesy and ends with rei.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “Karate is not about winning over others. It is about winning over one’s self. Ultimately, the most challenging opponents we face reside from within – our hang-ups, our insecurities, our prejudices. Overcome these and you will have truly won.” ~ David Walker
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“Power is no more than a part, no more than the tip of the iceberg of limitless profundity and sublimate of Karate.” ~ Mas Oyama
- “Karate is the best thing you can do for your child.” ~ Chuck Norris
- “Karate is Budo and if Budo is removed from Karate it is nothing more than sport karate, show karate, or even fashion karate-the idea of training merely to be fashionable.” ~ Mas Oyama
- “Use karate, judo, aikido, or any style to build your counter-offensive. It will be interesting!” ~ Bruce Lee
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“As far as possible, I want nothing more than to don my training gi and teach Karate.” ~ Mas Oyama
- “Last week I lost my temper in my karate class. Man, I’m not doing that again until I’m a black belt. Because I can tell you there’s a difference between taking karate and receiving karate.” ~ Demetri Martin
- “There are no styles of karate-do, just varying interpretations of its principles.” ~ Kenwa Mabuni
- “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
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“There are no pure styles of karate. Purity comes only when pure knuckles meet pure flesh, no matter who delivers or receives.” ~ Ed Parker
- “My Way is the Way of Karate, which is also the Way of humanity, and which is consequently related to the Way of Heaven.” ~ Mas Oyama
- “It is important that karate can be practiced by the young and old, men and women alike. That is, since there is no need for a special training place, equipment, or an opponent, a flexibility in training is provided such that the physically and spiritually weak individual can develop his body and mind so gradually and naturally that he himself may not even realize his own great progress.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
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“Karate is like boiling water: without heat, it returns to it’s tepid state” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “One whose spirit and mental strength have been strengthened by sparring with a never-say-die attitude should find no challenge too great to handle. One who has undergone long years of physical pain and mental agony to learn one punch, one kick, should be able to face any task, no matter how difficult, and carry it through to the end. A person like this can truly be said to have learned karate.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
- “Apply the way of karate to all things. Therein lies its beauty.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
