Top 70 Martial Arts Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I work hard and fight easy.”

— Conor McGregor

Also featured in: Hard Work Quotes, Action Quotes, Athlete Quotes, Fighting Quotes

2. “Practice makes perfect. After a long time of practicing, our work will become natural, skillful, swift, and steady.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Hard Work Quotes, Learning Quotes, Positive Motivational Quotes, Dedication Quotes

3. “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

Also featured in: Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes

4. “The way is in training.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Fighting Quotes, Practice Quotes, Art Quotes

5. “See to it that you temper yourself with one thousand days of practice, and refine yourself with ten thousand days of training.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Experience Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Practice Quotes

6. “Jeet Kune Do: it’s just a name; don’t fuss over it. There’s no such thing as a style if you understand the roots of combat.”

— Bruce Lee

7. “When in a fight to the death, one wants to employ all one’s weapons to the utmost. I must say that to die with one’s sword still sheathed is most regrettable.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Fighting Quotes

8. “Dedication, absolute dedication, is what keeps one ahead!”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Never Give Up Quotes, Dedication Quotes, Workout Quotes

9. “It is said the warrior’s is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways. Even if a man has no natural ability he can be a warrior by sticking assiduously to both divisions of the Way.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Fighting Quotes

10. “If you knew you had to fight for your life tomorrow, would you change your training today?”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Fighting Quotes, Exercise Quotes

11. “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

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Focus Quotes, Action Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Success

12. “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Taking Action Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes

13. “Be like water, my friend.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Change Quotes, Positive Motivational Quotes, Philosophical Quotes

14. “Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as a reality in your own mind.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Mindset Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Men

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

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Life Lessons Quotes, Adaptability Quotes, Wise Quotes

16. “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Mind Quotes, Inspiring Quotes, Flow Quotes

17. “I believe in myself so much that nothing is going to stop me.”

— Conor McGregor

Also featured in: Courage Quotes, Quotes About Strength, Goal Quotes, Confidence Quotes

18. “Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Change Quotes, Short Motivational Quotes, Positive Inspirational Quotes, Motivational Workout Quotes

19. “It may seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Hard Work Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Firsts Quotes

20. “To win any battle, you must fight as if you are already dead.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Winning Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Struggle Quotes

21. “Failure is not an option for me. Success is all I envision.”

— Conor McGregor

Also featured in: Powerful Motivational Quotes, Intention Quotes, Winning Quotes, Commitment Quotes

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

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Efficiency Quotes

23. “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

Also featured in: Meaningful Quotes, Wisdom Quotes, Intelligent Quotes, Good Morning Motivational Quotes

24. “Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Interesting Quotes, Taoism Quotes

25. “To me defeat in anything is merely temporary. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Failure Quotes, Mindset Quotes, Path Quotes, Moving Forward Quotes

26. “Not being tense but ready. Not thinking but not dreaming. Not being set but flexible. Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement. It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Short Quotes About Life, Positive Motivation Quotes, Preparation Quotes, Adaptability Quotes

27. “What is true stillness? Stillness in movement.”

— Bruce Lee

28. “The Art of Peace begins with you...”

— Morihei Ueshiba

Also featured in: Inner Peace Quotes, Peace Quotes

29. “There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Practice Quotes

30. “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Adaptability Quotes, Flow Quotes

31. “In all forms of strategy, it is necessary to maintain the combat stance in everyday life and to make your everyday stance your combat stance.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Warrior Quotes, Military Quotes

32. “Approach the enemy with the attitude of defeating him without delay.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Warrior Quotes, Military Quotes

33. “Spirit first, technique second.”

— Gichin Funakoshi

34. “First know yourself, then know others.”

— Gichin Funakoshi

35. “The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants.”

— Gichin Funakoshi

Also featured in: Perfection Quotes

36. “Even if you don’t win you learn. So there’s no losing. You win the fight or you learn.”

— Renzo Gracie

Also featured in: Growth Mindset Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Loss Quotes, Exercise Quotes

37. “The Way of a Warrior is to establish harmony.”

— Morihei Ueshiba

Also featured in: Warrior Quotes, Harmony Quotes, Communication Quotes

38. “A black belt is a white belt who never quits!”

— Renzo Gracie

Also featured in: Grit Quotes, Workout Quotes, Quitting Quotes

39. “Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Failure Quotes, Positive Inspirational Quotes, Personal Responsibility Quotes

40. “Do nothing that is of no use.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Focus Quotes, Efficiency Quotes, Quotes About Work, Purpose Quotes

41. “A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Personality Quotes

42. “Out of chaos, find simplicity, From discord, find harmony.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Positive Motivation Quotes, Sunday Motivational Quotes, Simplicity Quotes

43. “Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Strong Quotes, Strategy Quotes, Procrastination Quotes

44. “Low aim, not failure, is the crime.”

— Bruce Lee

45. “Take what’s useful, discard what is not.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Short Quotes, Short Quotes About Life, Efficiency Quotes

46. “Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Moving Quotes, Keep Going Quotes, Moving Forward Quotes

47. “I plot my ascent daily.”

— Conor McGregor

Also featured in: Competition Quotes, Gym Motivation Quotes, MMA Quotes

48. “You are either the best or you are the worst. There is no in between.”

— Conor McGregor

Also featured in: Athlete Quotes, Performance Quotes, Victory Quotes

49. “If you want to be a lion, you must train with lions.”

— Carlson Gracie

Also featured in: Gym Motivation Quotes, Workout Quotes

50. “If you are the best, you must go that extra mile.”

— Conor McGregor

Also featured in: Dedication Quotes, Fitness Quotes, Victory Quotes