Gichin Funakoshi Quotes - Page 2

Always be ready to release your mind.

You must be deadly serious in training. When I say that, I do not mean that you should be reasonably diligent or moderately in earnest. I mean that your opponent must always be present in your mind, whether you sit or stand or walk or raise your arms.

Students of any art, including Karate-do must never forget the cultivation of the mind and the body.

Inner mental technique is more important than the physical one.

When you are learning a new technique, practice it wholeheartedly until you truly understand it.

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.

There is no first strike in Karate.

Try to do exactly as you are taught without complaining or quibbling.

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.

Only a true weakling is capable of true courage.

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.

In karate, hitting, thrusting, and kicking are not the only methods, throwing techniques and pressure against joints are included … all these techniques should be studied referring to basic kata

Karate begins and ends with courtesy.

Put Karate into your everyday living, that is how you will see true beauty.

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.

Remember that you must always have a deep regard for courtesy, and you must be respectful and obedient toward your seniors.

Don't pretend to be a great master and don't try to show off your strength.

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.

When you leave your home, think that you have numerous opponents waiting for you (it is your behavior that invites trouble from them).

One of the most striking features of karate is that it may be engaged in by anybody, young or old, strong or weak, male or female.

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.

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

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.

In time of grave public crisis, one must have the courage to face a million and one opponents.

Any man will be able, after sufficient practice, to accomplish remarkable feats of strength, but he may go only so far and no farther. There is a limit to human physical strength that no one can exceed.