Martial arts is not for hurting people, it's for protecting people.
Interpretation
Martial arts emphasizes self-defense and protection rather than aggression or causing harm.
In this quote, Jackie Chan highlights the true essence of martial arts, which is often misunderstood as a means to inflict pain or dominate others. He emphasizes that martial arts is fundamentally about safeguarding oneself and others, fostering discipline, respect, and inner strength, rather than promoting violence or aggression.
In practice
This quote can be used during a martial arts demonstration to explain its true purpose.
American stuntmen are smart - they think about safety. When they do a jump in a car, they calculate everything: the speed, the distance... But in Hong Kong, we don't know how to count. Everything we do is a guess. If you've got the guts, you do it. All of my stuntmen have gotten hurt.
One thing I did pick up from Cannonball Run was the use of bloopers and outtakes under the final credits, which I've done in all my movies since.
Martial arts is for defense. It's not for attacking. So when people are fighting, always, always, defend.
We learn martial arts as helping weakness. You never fight for people to get hurt. You're always helping people.
In the past when I was in Hollywood, I was like a dog. I felt humiliated. My English was not good. People would even ask me 'Jackie Who?'.
Why did I become Jackie Chan? Mostly because I work very hard. When people were sleeping, I was still training.
Women are strong, strong, terribly strong. We don't know how strong until we are pushing out our babies. We are too often treated like babies having babies when we should be in training, like acolytes, novices to high priestesshood, like serious applicants for the space program.
Once working people discover that, collectively, we have more power than we do as individual silos, then we become an incredibly powerful force. But I think that there are powers that be that are invested in us remaining divided along racial lines, along economic lines.
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
If I had not some strength of will I would make a first class drunkard.
How much courage does it take to fire up your tractor and plow under a crop you spent six or seven years growing? How much courage to go on and do that after you've spent all that time finding out how to prepare the soil and when to plant and how much to water and when to reap? How much to just say, "I have to quit these peas. Peas are no good for me, I better try corn or beans.
Should one point out that from ancient times decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end?
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