I’m going to change the way martial arts is viewed. I’m going to change the game. I’m going to change the way people approach fighting.

The mind is everything. What you think you become.

I’ll beat him so bad he’ll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.

The goal of jiu-jitsu in self-defense isn’t to take someone down to the ground – the goal in jiu-jitsu for self-defense is actually to be able to defend yourself on the ground, get up, and get away from an attacker. That’s what the goal is.

To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

I never wanted to be the next Bruce Lee. I just wanted to be the first Jackie Chan.

If you sit there and have that mentality of ‚triple down on what you’re good at,‘ you’re never going to grow. You’re always going to stay the same.

The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.

You can live your life angry, bitter, mad at somebody or even guilty, not letting go of your own mistakes, but you won’t receive the good things God has in store.

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

All the screen cowboys behaved like real gentlemen. They didn’t drink, they didn’t smoke. When they knocked the bad guy down, they always stood with their fists up, waiting for the heavy to get back on his feet. I decided I was going to drag the bad guy to his feet and keep hitting him.

I knew I’d be in the UFC since I started my career.

At 155, I will be the same animal, an even better animal.

I want to rethink ‚surrender‘ as an active verb.

I have always fought for concrete facts, for justice.

People change because of kids. They change how they eat. They change the way they think. They change the way they see one another.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.

The Cold War isn’t thawing; it is burning with a deadly heat. Communism isn’t sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.

Don’t grow accustomed to living with less, doing less, and being less to the point that you eventually sit back and accept it.

I used to have a real problem with self-pity. Every time the devil would throw a pity party, I would attend.

The thing about Jiu Jitsu is it is also not for everybody. It can be very humiliating and humbling. If you have a hard time dealing with the fact that someone smaller than you may be able to tap you out, it is going to be difficult.

You can’t keep your mind on fighting when you’re thinking about a woman. You can’t keep your concentration. You feel like sleeping all the time.

If my edge is dull, my sword is dull, and I don’t want to fight another guy whose sword is dull. If you’ve got two steel swords going back and forth hitting each other, what’s gonna happen? Both of them are going to get sharper. Everybody that’s in the industry has lost their edge.

You don’t have the same mentality as you did five years ago – even one year. People are always changing, and I believe that everyone deserves the space to change and for people to recognize their change.

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.

Jiu Jitsu is a great workout both mentally and physically. You want to be strong for it and flexible for it.

Boxing is limited fighting with a specific rule set. Fighting is true, where you can do anything.

I sometimes just don’t like to see the Ultimate Fighting. I just find it, as a martial artist, I just find it too violent.

‚Worry‘ is a word that I don’t allow myself to use.

There is nothing I love as much as a good fight.

I want to make a good, solid kung fu movie.

I don’t feel bitterness, I don’t feel anger towards anybody. Fighting is never emotional to me.

I’ve learned new footwork patterns that are very unusual. I’ve learned how to find a lower centre of gravity, and I’ve found more angles to throw shots.

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

Words are powerful; if you change your words, you can change your life.

The rich don’t work for money – the rich invent money.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

I’m more of a realist when it comes to life, and I’d much rather my mother be in a spiritual place in Heaven than in a bed, sick, fighting for her life.

I’m committed to the fight game.

Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can’t talk. The man can’t fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he’s gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons.

I’m tired of fighting. I’ve always known that I can’t be an action star all my life.

I want to be an expert in different fighting styles, new training methods, new ways of thinking.

Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

Posture for combat is so vital.

I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

I think how you start the day many times determines what kind of day you’re going to have.

Learning to live for others isn’t something that just comes naturally to anybody. You have to train yourself to do it.

If you have to stand and fight, you train yourself so that you’re able to do it.

In fact men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth – often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you cannot get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable.

Instead of blaming everyone and everything else for your problems, pray for God to help you take an inventory of what’s been on your mind so you can think about what you’ve been thinking about.

Being seventy is not a sin.

My philosophy is simple: It’s a down-home, common, horse-sense approach to things.

It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

We learn martial arts as helping weakness. You never fight for people to get hurt. You’re always helping people.

If you learn a martial art, you learn to be dangerous, but simultaneously, you learn to control it.

I love wushu a lot and I would love to see it included in future Olympic Games.

What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.