Explore Quotes by Mas Oyama

Karate is not a game. It is not a sport. It is not even a system of self-defense. Karate is half physical exercise and half spiritual. The karateist who has given the necessary years of exercise and meditation is a tranquil person. He is unafraid. He can even be calm in a burning building.

Studying the martial Way is like climbing a cliff: keep going forward without rest. Resting is not permissible because it causes recessions to old adages of achievement. Persevering day in, day out improves techniques, but resting one day causes lapses. This must be prevented.

Personal greed and egoism are things that cause human beings to forget respect for others and to violate rules that have been established for the sake of peace and friendship.

Power is no more than a part, no more than the tip of the iceberg of limitless profundity and sublimate of Karate.

Come ye trials and challanges; come life's big waves, for I am ready?

Karate is Budo and if Budo is removed from Karate it is nothing more than sport karate, show karate, or even fashion karate-the idea of training merely to be fashionable.

Sice Karate exists for cultivating the spirit and training the body, it must be a moral way surpassing mere techniques.

In the martial arts, introspection begets wisdom. Always see contemplation on your actions as an opportunity to improve.

I have not permitted myself to be ignorant of any martial art that exists. Why? Such ignorance is a disgrace to someone who follows the path of the martial arts.

True courage is born only when it is accompanied by justice.

The heart of our karate is real fighting.There can be no proof without real fighting. Without proof there is no trust. Without trust there is no respect. This is a definition in the world of martial arts.

My Way is the Way of Karate, which is also the Way of humanity, and which is consequently related to the Way of Heaven.

A man who understands decorum and the courtesies is a great treasure; I hope to train and send into society as many such men as I can.

Courtesy should be apparent in all our actions and words and in all aspects of daily life. But be courtesy, I do not mean rigid, cold formality. Courtesy in the truest sense is selfless concern for the welfare and physical and mental comfort of the other person.

No matter how strong the rival, the just will always win.

Each of us has his cowardice. Each of us is afraid to lose, afraid to die. But hanging back is the way to remain a coward for life. The Way to find courage is to seek it on the field of conflict. And the sure way to victory is willingness to risk one's own life.

Subjecting yourself to vigourous training is more for the sake of forging a resolute spirit that can vanquish the self than it is for developing a strong body.

I realized that perseverence and step-by-step progress are the only ways to reach a goal along a chosen path.

If you have confidence in your own words, aspirations, thoughts, and actions and do your very best, you will have no need to regret the outcome of what you do. Fear and trembling are lot of the person who, while stinting effort, hopes that everything will come out precisely as he wants.

The fastest way to attain courage is to follow the chosen Way and be willing to abandon life itself for the sake of justice.

The most significant life is the one lived on the basis of a personal sense of justice and the desire to see justice realized everywhere.