Historical archive
Verified martial arts quotes — and the myths
Each quote below was found in the source it is attributed to. We give the original, our translation (or a public-domain one, identified) and the context. Then come the lines that circulate under a famous name but are not theirs.
Verified
知彼知己，百戰不殆If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
Giles’s 1910 translation continues: if you know yourself but not the enemy, every victory costs a defeat; if you know neither, you lose every battle. Translation: Lionel Giles (1910, public domain).
不戰而屈人之兵，善之善者也Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
Often quoted as “the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”: the wording changes with each translation, but the idea is in the text. Translation: Lionel Giles (1910, public domain).
兵形象水Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.
Water as a model for fighting runs through Chinese thought, from the Daodejing to Bruce Lee (see below). Translation: Lionel Giles (1910, public domain).
天下莫柔弱於水，而攻堅強者莫之能勝Nothing under heaven is softer and weaker than water, yet for attacking what is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.
Our translation from the Chinese. The text is traditionally attributed to Laozi; historians see it as a compilation from around the 4th century BCE.
君子無所爭。必也射乎！揖讓而升，下而飲。其爭也君子。The gentleman does not compete — except, perhaps, in archery. He bows and yields as he goes up, and comes down to drink. Even when he competes, he is a gentleman.
Our translation. In Confucian ritual, archery was a test of character as much as of skill — an idea that still shapes kyūdō.
千日の稽古を鍛とし、万日の稽古を錬とすA thousand days of practice to forge; ten thousand days of practice to refine.
Our translation. 鍛 and 錬 are the two halves of 鍛錬, the smith’s word for forging and tempering steel, which Musashi uses for training throughout the book.
今日は昨日の我に勝り、明日は下手に勝ち、後は上手に勝つToday, surpass the self you were yesterday; tomorrow, beat those of lesser skill; later, beat those of greater skill.
Our translation. In the same passage Musashi says a journey of a thousand ri is made one step at a time, and asks the reader to go slowly and not stray to “side paths”.
第九に役に立たぬ事をばせざる事Ninth: do nothing that is of no use.
Our translation. The first rule is “think of nothing that is not honest”; the others include training in the Way, touching other arts, knowing other trades and seeing what the eye cannot see.
心を広く直にして、きつくひつぱらず、少しもたるまずKeep your mind broad and straight, not pulled tight and not slack in the least.
Our translation. Musashi insists that the mind in combat must be the same as the everyday mind: calm when moving fast, never hurried when calm.
武士道と云ふは死ぬ事と見付けたりI have found that the way of the warrior is dying.
Our translation. Context matters: Tsunetomo was a retainer of the Saga domain writing a century into peacetime, and he means accepting death in advance so as to act without hesitation. The book was little known in its own time and was popularised in the 20th century, including by militarist propaganda.
精力善用・自他共栄Best use of energy; mutual welfare and benefit.
Two four-character phrases. For Kanō they went beyond technique: the same efficiency and cooperation should guide life in society.
Dar auff dich fasse / Alle kunst haben leng vnd masseHold yourself to this: every art has length and measure.
Our translation from the Early New High German transcription on Wiktenauer (CC BY-SA 4.0). The prologue opens “Young knight, learn to love God and honour women”; “length and measure” is usually read as distance and proportion in every technique.
Be water, my friend.
A line from the series, written by Stirling Silliphant, which Lee repeated in his 1971 interview with Pierre Berton. It is not public domain: we quote only the short phrase. The image of water goes back to the Daodejing and Sun Tzu, quoted above.
Attribution not confirmed
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.
Attributed to Bruce Lee
Not confirmed. The Bruce Lee Foundation told Snopes in 2022 that it is authentic and comes from the family archive, but no dated document, film, interview or book has been published with these words. The idea — master a few things deeply — does match Lee’s known writings. We present it as an attribution, not as a verified quote.
Myths and false attributions
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
Often credited to Sun Tzu
It is not in The Art of War. The line is spoken by Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974), written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola.
Every battle is won before it is fought.
Quoted as Sun Tzu
A modern paraphrase, not a quotation. What the text says (chapter IV, Giles 1910): “the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.”
Bodhidharma taught the monks of Shaolin to fight and created kung fu.
A widespread legend
The story comes from a preface to the Yijin Jing that claims to date from 628 but contains clear anachronisms. Historians (Tang Hao, Matsuda Ryūchi, Meir Shahar) date the text to around 1624 and found no link between Bodhidharma and Shaolin fighting in sources before the 19th century. The monastery’s fighting monks are documented — the founding legend is not.
Coloured belts are an ancient tradition — and the black belt means “master”.
A common belief
Ranks with a black belt for dan grades come from Kanō’s judo in the late 19th century. Coloured belts for the lower grades were introduced by Gunji Koizumi at the Budokwai in London in 1926, and Mikinosuke Kawaishi spread a full colour system in France after he arrived in 1935. Karate and other arts adopted the model later. In judo, the first black belt (shodan) means “first step” — a beginning, not mastery.
Bushidō was the written code that all samurai followed for a thousand years.
A modern idea
There was never one code. The word bushidō is rare before the 17th century, when the samurai were already living in peace. The image of a single samurai ethic owes much to Nitobe Inazō’s Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1900, written in English for Western readers) and to state nationalism in the early 20th century.
Sources
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War, tr. Lionel Giles (1910) — Project Gutenberg — www.gutenberg.org
- Daodejing, chapter 78 — Chinese Text Project — ctext.org
- Analects, book III (Ba Yi), 7 — Chinese Text Project — ctext.org
- Miyamoto Musashi, Gorin no sho — original text — www.miyamoto-musashi.org
- Hagakure — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
- Bushido — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
- Kodokan Judo Institute — Jita-kyoei — kodokanjudoinstitute.org
- Judo — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
- Johannes Liechtenauer — Wiktenauer (transcription by Dierk Hagedorn, CC BY-SA 4.0) — wiktenauer.com
- Longstreet (TV series) — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
- Snopes, “Did Bruce Lee Say This About the Value of Practice?” (2022) — www.snopes.com
- The Godfather Part II — Wikiquote — en.wikiquote.org
- Yijin Jing — Wikipedia (Tang Hao; Matsuda; Shahar 2008) — en.wikipedia.org
- IJF, “The belt: myth and reality of an essential symbol” — www.ijf.org
- FFJudo, “À la découverte de la méthode Kawaishi” — www.ffjudo.com
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WABUKAN 和武館, «Verified martial arts quotes — and the myths», https://wabukan.com/citacoes-historicas (accessed 2026-10-30).
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