We learn martial arts as helping weakness. You never fight for people to get hurt. You're always helping people.
Interpretation
Martial arts are taught to empower individuals and promote well-being rather than to cause harm.
In this quote, Jackie Chan emphasizes the essence of martial arts training, which is not centered around aggression but rather on the development of self-discipline, confidence, and the ability to protect oneself and others. The true spirit of martial arts lies in using the skills acquired to assist those who are vulnerable, highlighting the importance of compassion and support in any form of conflict resolution.
In practice
In a motivational speech on team building.
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 not for hurting people, it's for protecting people.
Martial arts is for defense. It's not for attacking. So when people are fighting, always, always, defend.
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.
The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality.… If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.
In Bosnia, little children shot in the head by a guy who thinks it's okay to aim his gun at a child.
We are Craiglockhart's success stories. Look at us. We don't remember, we don't feel, we don't think - at least beyond the confines of what's needed to do the job. By any proper civilized standard (but what does that mean now?) we are objects of horror. But our nerves are completely steady. And we are still alive.
You need a degree of foolishness to cause disruptive change in healthcare. Dare to dream.
My dad prepared me for the worst of times while also enabling me to succeed in the best. He taught me to confront the insidiousness of racism head on, no matter what the ramification, so it will not fester. Defeat it and get past it. That was The Talk. Nothing scared me after that.
Even behind prison walls I can see the heavy clouds and the blue sky over the horizon
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