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.
I am convinced that...in the struggle for righteousness man has cosmic companionship.
We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us.
The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms and rights require courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act - and if necessary, to suffer and die - for truth and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shall not go undetected and unremedied.
Courage consists in equality to the problem before us.
Let's be in awe which doesn't mean anything but the courage to gape like fish at the surface breaking around our mouths as we meet the air.
The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.