Favorite saying or proverb...

[kendo_chick]

Well, I was inspired by the "Ultimate Top Ten Martial Arts" last night.

I heard my favorite quote for training of all time...

"Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battle field"

So, what's your favorite saying or proverb?

[Critical_Bill]

"Take moments, never take time...or your kendo will suck and you will die!"
(quote ebihara sensei)

[mingshi]

"In a real battlefield, you pick up an enemy who has turned to his back. Stab him from behind, step on top of him, and cover your face with his blood..."

-- Actual words of Victor Harris

[Paburo]

my friend told me this was from bushido:

si te persiguen, huye.
si te insultan, calla.
si te acorralan, mata.

in my best broken english it would be something like this:

if they chase you, run.
if they insult you, keep quiet.
if they corner you, kill.

[KhawMengLee]

hmmnn...I like these two

[KhawMengLee]

oops...anyway onto the qoutes:

"If you're going through hell, keep going."
--Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) British Statesman, Prime Minister, Author

and

"Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

[lucian]

A one every comprehensive student should know
"The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori"
Wilfred Owen, soldier, poet, dead bloke.

[KhawMengLee]

It is sweet and proper to die for one's country?

Looking at the Avatar you have Lucian, ever heard of this one about the kukri's prowess at decapitation?:

A gurkha and a Japanese officer were squared off against each other. The former with his kukri and the latter with a fine katana.
With a deft stroke the officer sliced off the gurkha's hand. Looking at the officer the gurkha said:

"Well done Sahib, you have wounded me...just don't nod your head."

[lucian]

yeah that would be the best transation in modern English, sorry i should have put it in English too

haha yup i have Heard that one, and it is probably true! Kukri are the most beautiful knife I have ever used (I still have many cuts on my fingers from every time I drew the blade)
I really miss my kukri damn ex-fiancée handed it in to the police during the weapons amnesty

Gregg

[KhawMengLee]

I got a really old antique one. My dad's mate in the army got it from a counterpart during the malayan emergency(when we went to war with indonesia).

Good weapon...bloody cuts through anything.

[munenmuso]

Do not seek to follow the footsteps of the old men ; seek what they sought.


-Matsuo Basho

[Winter_Wolf]

Hi,
Momma always said:
"Life is like a box a choclates, ya never know what your gonna get."
seriously, I love that movie...
Thanks,
W.W.

[lucian]

“Better To Die Than A Coward” – Gurkha motto “Utrinque Paratus (ready for any thing)”-Para motto

~G

[KhawMengLee]

heh, I got the book with that title.

[nodachi]

Dorp Dead

No, that is not a typo, it's an actual title of a book that I saw once, never got around to reading it though... kinda sad I didn't get to it, title sounded interesting...

[Nishi]

"Be still and know I am God"..............Yesau (meaning "I am")

[amatsuda]

Some of my favorite quotes and proverbs off the top of my head...

As a businessman...

"No Kindness Forgotten...No Transgression Forgiven..."

As a Kendo Instructor...

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." --Benjamin Franklin

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, are great." --Mark Twain

As a Competitor....

"I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself." --D.H. Lawrence

"Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment." --H. Ross Perot

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat." --Teddy Roosevelt

[sjp]

how about

'If you can't take a joke
you shouldn't have joined'


My platoon sargeants favourite.

[John W]

ok here is my all time fav quote:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We as ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that
other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is
within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in EVERYONE!
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence
automatically liberates others!"

Nelson Mandela 1994 Inaugural Speech.

[Shikai]

The sword is the mind,
When the sword is right,
The mind is Right,
When the sword is not right,
The mind is not right.
He who follows the way of the sword,
Must first study the way of the mind.
-Koan of Nakamura

[ben]

"Beware any enterprise that requires the purchase of new clothes."
Thoreau (?)

[lewis]

Fortune befriends the bold.

[KhawMengLee]

"My shinai is rooted!"
J. Forrester. (note: this was in a local shiai comp. when my aforementioned sempai raised his hand to stop the match, pointing out the broken slat with the aforementioned phrase.)

"That's 'My shinai is broken not rooted!"
One of the shinpan following Mr Forrester's comment.

[Sinta]

Well I quite like the wise saying of my signature ^_^ but here's some more:

Winners aren't quitters, and quitters never win. - ?

Eternity lives in our dreams, Our hearts on starlight beams. - Sinta

Don't cry because you've lost the sun, for the tears won't let you see the stars. - ?

I know I got a few more. I'll post em when I find them ;)

[Kendoboy]

"the true test of belief is the willingness to act"
- Henry James


"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today"
- Malcolm X


"The condom is the glass slipper of our generation"
- Chuck Palahnuik (Fight Club)

[Sinta]

As I said on my post.. here comes some more ^_^

"That which doesn't kill me makes me stronger..."

"Only a warrior chooses pacifism. Others are condemned to it."

"War is not about who's right. It's about who's left."

There ya go ^_^ a few bits of Sinty wisdom.

[Marquis]

Does anybody have a proverb in japanese signs?

some quotes I like

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born
again. -Sylvia Plath

Student: "Hey, what's your special power? Can you, like, read my mind?"
Rogue: "Yeah, like I could find it." - X-men evolutions

Happiness is to give back
Love one another, have respect
Give more to receive less
Give life, soul and fire - Soulfly

Don't tell me what to do
We live in different worlds
Suffer and pain
Has built my brain
Never understand
Won't see it your way
I don't have to be
Like anyone else - Nailbomb

Greetz

[Yann]

My favourite saying could be translated as:
"It's not because you're on a diet that you can't watch the menu."

But when I use it I am not talking about food... :wink:

[MecnunK]

I have quite a few that I like however these are my favourites:

It is better to live the life of a lion for a day than to live the life of a jackal for a 100 years- Tipu Sultan

Duty is heavier than a mountain, death is lighter than a feather - read in some book

So in the Libyan fable it is told that once an eagle, stricken with a dart,said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,"With our own feathers, not by others’ hands, are we now smitten."

[servant]

If only we might fall like Cherry blossoms in the spring so pure and radiant.
- poem by a Kamikaze pilot

[gsx1100s]

"Every beginning is weak"

( old Irish saying), good for when you get frustrated:)

[Reina]

"The absolutely worst times in your life prepare you for the greatest happiness."

[YAMAFELL]

a few i like:

"Never argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference."
-unknown

"If you arn't remembered, then you never existed." -lain

"Stop looking at me swan." -billy madison

"Don't hold back
Trying to protect your ass;
As soon as an
Opening Appears
Seize it."
-Yamaoka Teshu

A toasting speech by me:
"kanpai to: Japan, the land of small and compact... everything." ^_^ hehe

[Fulcrum]

"There will never be an END, only a begining of another begining." unsure of author...

[Caveira]

this one is really good to use on kids:
"faz como eu digo, não faças como eu faço"
and it roughly translates to:
"do as I say, not as i do"

[Old Warrior]

this one is really good to use on kids:
"faz como eu digo, não faças como eu faço"
and it roughly translates to:
"do as I say, not as i do"

My favorite was an original one:

"If I don't get my way, I don't fund the day".

If you are opposed to shouting, hitting or threatening - you've got to use what you've got.

[Ben F.]

"Not all who wander are lost." -JRR Tolkein

"Ignorence is the night of the mind, but a night without moon or star."
-Kung Fu Tzu

"We train for a thousand days; whether we win or lose is decided in an instant." -???

"I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member."
-Groucho Marx

[sparc]

"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most" - Ozzy Osbourne.

"I've learnt so much from my mistakes... that I'm thinking of making a few more!" - Anon.

[taganahan]

here's one: "one out of three people suffer a mental illness. think of your two closest friends, if they're ok then maybe it's you!"

~taganahan

[Zaphiel]

here's one: "one out of three people suffer a mental illness. think of your two closest friends, if they're ok then maybe it's you!"

~taganahan
hahqahahahaha
good one.....mhhh seems to be me.....:)
my favorite:
men are like little fish swimming on the surface of the sea.....they don't know what is below.

[KhawMengLee]

Orson Welles had these Gems to share:

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."

"I started at the top and worked down."

"Movie directing is the perfect refuge for the mediocre."

"I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts."

"I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That's what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act."

"If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girl friends. And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys."

[On Citizen Kane (1941) being colorized] "Keep Ted Turner and his goddamned Crayolas away from my movie."

"My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people."

The Man rocks!

[Nanbanjin]

Orson Welles had these Gems to share:

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."

"I started at the top and worked down."

"Movie directing is the perfect refuge for the mediocre."

"I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts."

"I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That's what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act."

"If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girl friends. And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys."

[On Citizen Kane (1941) being colorized] "Keep Ted Turner and his goddamned Crayolas away from my movie."

"My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people."

The Man rocks!

George Bernard Shaw

- "The devil can quote Shakespeare for his own purpose"

Groucho Marx has some funny ones.

- "Women should be obscene and not heard."
- "I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception. "
- "Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms. "
- "Military justice is to justice what military music is to music. "

[D'Artagnan]

Here's a few of my favourites

"Political correctness is the moral safe-ground occupied by those too scared to tell the truth." - myself

"If we Drink, We will die,
If we Don't Drink, we will die,
So we might as well say 'what the hell'
and let the glasses... umm i forgotten the rest" - An alcoholic friend of mine

"Pick a window, you're leaving" - Another friend of mine

"It's a bit like shouting 'oi you! you're sister's a minger' in the pub" - My sensei on describing Kiai.

"You can't not become a better person from doing kendo. You think i'm bad, you should have seen me 5 years ago!" - My sensei on the self improvement benefeits of Kendo.

"Can everyone get into couples of three" - My dutch sensei

"Wow, I guess the Duch really are more liberal than us" - Nishi in response to the above.

"Stop letting him hit you" - my loving girlfriend on spectating me in combat.

[Nanbanjin]

Here's a few of my favourites

"Political correctness is the moral safe-ground occupied by those too scared to tell the truth." - myself

"If we Drink, We will die,
If we Don't Drink, we will die,
So we might as well say 'what the hell'
and let the glasses... umm i forgotten the rest" - An alcoholic friend of mine

"Pick a window, you're leaving" - Another friend of mine

"It's a bit like shouting 'oi you! you're sister's a minger' in the pub" - My sensei on describing Kiai.

"You can't not become a better person from doing kendo. You think i'm bad, you should have seen me 5 years ago!" - My sensei on the self improvement benefeits of Kendo.

"Can everyone get into couples of three" - My dutch sensei

"Wow, I guess the Duch really are more liberal than us" - Nishi in response to the above.

"Stop letting him hit you" - my loving girlfriend on spectating me in combat.

"I can stand the smell if you can stand the pain" - Traditional greeting used by male kendoists before training.

[D'Artagnan]

"I can stand the smell if you can stand the pain" - Traditional greeting used by male kendoists before training.

lol, may have to begin practising that tradition.

[Nanbanjin]

lol, may have to begin practising that tradition.

You would probably not want to say that to the wrong person. In the wrong context (e.g. a bar in Soho) it might be misinterpreted.