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.

When you are learning about a martial art, it is about respect.

People say that I’m a boxer. I actually started with kick boxing, and then I moved onto boxing, and then I moved onto grappling.

I never got into training to be an All-Ireland boxing champ or to win a belt. At the start, I just got into it to learn how to defend myself when I got into situations.

People want to tear me down, they were going to knife me anyway.

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

The principle of self defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi.

Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

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.

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.

Who wants to leave the door open to being dominated physically by another human being? Jiu Jitsu gives you the ability to not be dominated by that person, and to me, that’s real peace of mind. I don’t have to worry about that when I’m walking around in the world.

I like to have guns around. I don’t like to carry them.

Jiu Jitsu is probably the No. 1 activity that I could recommend to someone to improve their lives overall.

You don’t send people to prison on the basis of what other people imagine, or on the basis of media sound bites like ‚shooting an unarmed child,‘ when that ‚child‘ was beating him bloody.

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.

In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also.

I have a self-defense mind. I’ve had it all my life.

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

This above all, to refuse to be a victim.

If someone attacks me, and they want to punch or kick me, I can just run away. They’re not holding onto me. I can get away from them.

If they let people go fight jiu-jitsu tournaments, they can’t stop me going to fight a boxing fight.

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

I think if someone gets kicked in the face it is their fault – they watched the foot come towards their face.

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

I think I am the greatest fighter in any class. I know I can hold two, maybe even three belts.

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

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

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

I do like to have guns around. I don’t like to carry them. But I like – if somebody is going to come into my house and I have not put out the welcome mat, I want to stop them.

Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up.

It’s a lose-lose situation to get in a confrontation on the street. If you can break contact and get away, break contact and get away. That’s what you should learn self-defense for.

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.

It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.

Jackie Chan is a myth.

Posture for combat is so vital.

Chinese combatants, men and women, inheritors of a millennial culture, are people of uncommon intelligence and an invincible spirit of struggle.

To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.

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

My unpredictability is what separates me. If you move in so many ways, your opponent is not focused on what he’s doing. He’s focusing in on what you’re doing, and it freezes him. When they freeze and you hit, they shatter like glass.

One day a guy tried to rob me on the street, and I had no money. So I charged him.

My mother was very strong. Once, she picked up a coconut and smashed it against my father’s head. It taught me about women defending themselves and not collapsing in a heap.

One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.

Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.

I’m not a person who defends myself very often. I kind of let my actions speak for me.

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

I am never proud to participate in violence, yet I know that each of us must care enough for ourselves that we can be ready and able to come to our own defense when and wherever needed.

I’m in the game of spinning plates. I’m spinning a boxing plate. I’m spinning a Tae Kwon Do plate. I’m spinning a Jujitsu plate. I’m spinning a freestyle wrestling plate. I’m spinning a karate plate. If I was to put all them down and have one boxing plate spinning, it would be like a load off my shoulders.

The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

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.

One time, this guy was bothering my mother, and me and my brothers had a stern talking with the guy and a little bit of physicality with him. So he disappeared. But I’m not a magician.

We’ve never advocated violence; violence is inflicted upon us. But we do believe in self-defense for ourselves and for black people.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

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.

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.

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

Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It’s self-defense. It’s patriotism.