Quotes

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Mental warfare forged in conversation.

I would want to tell her, my daughter, to not fall into the trap of feeling you have to conform to what society wants you to be. That peer pressure is going to lead to always chasing the same thing, which is ever changing.

Chasing that level of acceptance can be detrimental, because you are going to have to change your personality every time. Be yourself and be happy with yourself.

Discipline is the art of just doing it. It is an action. It is not about how you feel, what you are going to do, or what you have done.

It is sticking to your plan and trusting it because you know you will get the results. It is just a matter of time.

There is something to be said about how painful it is along the way. It is cliche to say it is about the journey, not about the end result, but it is true.

If you can not find a way to enjoy the ride, you are going to get to the top of the mountain and just be like: damn, what a waste of time. The more painful it is, the more enjoyable it becomes.

Joy is eternal. When I am around my grandchildren, that is joy. Happiness is a temporary and brief feeling. Joy is spiritual. Joy is a connection and a level beyond happiness that will last a lifetime.

You have to lose. You have to fail. If you do not fail, then you cannot win. If you do not even try, you are not going to win.

Will you fail again? Probably. Not every mistake that you make is exactly the same. You are a human being. Life would be really boring if you were not.

Be proud of yourself despite your setbacks. Be proud of yourself especially when you lose.

Having that ability to say to yourself, “You are good enough, you did well enough,” and having that acceptance will lead you to making better choices later, which leads to better character development. Fail, fail again, fail better.

From day one, I instilled in them: respect yourself. Some things you will not do if you respect yourself, because you have a higher standard.

The higher the standard you hold for yourself, the less you will lower your standards for others.

Simple

Morior Invictus

Death Before Defeat

Fortuna favens parato

Fortune favors the prepared

Consilium ex oculis apparet

Intention appears from the eyes

IcHi-gO Icgi-e

One time, one meeting

futō-fuKutSU

The mind that does not bend and does not yield

Jigō-JitOKu

The consequences of one's own actions

teiKaN

The achievement of peace through the acceptance of reality and letting go

Wabi-sAbi

Beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness

Kaizen

Continuous improvement over delayed perfection

Shu Ha Ri

Learn the rules like a professional, so you can break them like an artist

Jiu-Jitsu Pretzel

The gentle art of folding another human into a pretzel.

Jiu-Jitsu Laundry

The gentle art of folding clothes with someone still wearing it.

Classical Wisdom

Ancient principles that outlasted empires.

Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated. Hence the skillful fighter puts himself into a position which makes defeat impossible, and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy.

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

What does it matter how much a man has laid up in his safe, or in his warehouse, how large are his flocks and how fat his dividends, if he covets his neighbour's property, and reckons, not his past gains, but his hopes of gains to come?

Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough.

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

As to things then which ought to be done and ought not to be done, and good and bad, and beautiful and ugly.

On these matters we praise, we censure, we accuse, we blame, we judge and determine about principles honourable and dishonourable.

Heritage of Faith

Sacred strength and eternal foundation.

Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without defect. He who loves his wife loves himself

Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers; and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”

Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.

Whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Do the things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend’s countenance.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Why do you judge your brother? Why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Each one of us will give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling.

American Revolution

Wisdom that built a nation.

Accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

You must do it for yourself. You must curb that impetuosity of temper, which properly directed may be productive of great good. If you indulge yourself in the practice of any foible or vice in youth, it will gain strength with your years and become your conquerer.

The dessolated Lover and disappointed Connections, are compelled by their Grief to reflect on the vanity of human Wishes and Expectations; to learn the essential Lesson of Resignation; to review their own Conduct towards the deceased; to correct any Errors or faults in their future conduct towards their remaining friends and towards all Men; to recollect the Virtues of the lost Friend and resolve to imitate them; his Follies and Vices if he had and resolve to avoid them.”

I am anxious to hear how you do. The great distance between us makes me anxious. A thousand fears crowd upon my mind.

I cannot help being apprehensive that your health will be injured by so much application to business and so little relaxation. I fear you will have too much upon your hands. The multiplicity of cares which surround you fill me with concern.”=

There is no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.

Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down as much as one pleases, it is still alive and will every now and then peep out and show itself.

Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.

Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.

Enduring Americans

Blood, Grit, and the American Dream.

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success.

Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything. Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments.

The present is theirs. The future, for which I have really worked, is mine.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

The infinite wonders of the universe are revealed to us in exact measure as we are capable of receiving them. The keenness of our vision depends not on how much we can see, but on how much we feel.

Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad." - Henry Longfellow

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence.

The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.

There is, first, the success either in big things or small things which comes to the man who has in him the natural power to do what no one else can do. This is the most striking kind of success.

But much the commoner type of success in every walk of life and in every species of effort is that which comes to the man who differs from his fellows not by the kind of quality which he possesses but by the degree of development which he has given that quality.

We do not admire the man of timid peace, we admire the man who embodies victorious effort.

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been stored up effort in the past.

International Philosophy

Mindset speaks every language.

For the secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for. Without a stable conception of the object of life, man would not consent to go on living, and would rather destroy himself than remain on earth, though he had bread in abundance.

In opposition to Positivism, which halts at phenomena and says, these are only facts and nothing more, I would say: no, facts are precisely what is lacking, all that exists consists of interpretations.

We cannot establish any fact in itself. Everything is subjective, you say, but that in itself is interpretation.

What is love? Love hinders death. Love is life.

All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is united by it alone.

Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.

We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory.

Like the images the photographer plunges into a golden bath, our sentiments take on color; and only then, after that recoil and that transfiguration, do we understand their real meaning and enjoy them in all their tranquil splendor.

Above all, don’t lie to yourself.

The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.

And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.