“When you lose your temper, you lose yourself—on the mat as well as in life.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“When one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the Way.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“When an untoward event occurs in your life, react to it without haste or passion.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“For example, if you are fearful your mind will freeze, motion will be stopped and you will be defeated. If your mind is fixed on victory or defeating your opponent, you will be unable to function automatically.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“Only through practice and more practice, until you can do something without conscious effort.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“I can defeat you physically with or without a reason. But I can only defeat your mind with a reason. —JIM LAU”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every action.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“Those who are patient in the trivial things in life and control themselves will one day have the same mastery in great and important things.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“Always remember: in life as well as on the mat an unfocused or ‘loose’ mind wastes energy.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“What stands in the way of effortless effort is caring, or a conscious attempt to do well.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“The principle of avoiding conflict and never opposing an aggressor’s strength head-on is the essence of aikido. We apply the same principle to problems that arise in life. The skilled aikidoist is as elusive as the truth of Zen; he makes himself into a koan—a puzzle which slips away the more one tries to solve it. He is like water in that he falls through the fingers of those who try to clutch him. Water does not hesitate before it yields, for the moment the fingers begin to close it moves away, not of its own strength, but by using the pressure applied to it. It is for this reason, perhaps, that one of the symbols for aikido is water.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“For the uncontrolled there is no wisdom, nor for the uncontrolled is there the power of concentration; and for him without concentration there is no peace. And for the unpeaceful, how can there be happiness? —BHAGAVAD GITA”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“The mind is like a fertile garden,” Bruce said. “It will grow anything you wish to plant—beautiful flowers or weeds. And so it is with successful, healthy thoughts or with negative ones that will, like weeds, strangle and crowd the others. Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“We are like blades of grass or trees of the forest, creations of the universe, of the spirit of the universe, and the spirit of the universe has neither life nor death. Vanity is the only obstacle to life.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“Only after several years of training did I come to realize that the deepest purpose of the martial arts is to serve as a vehicle for personal spiritual development.”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“And for the unpeaceful, how can there be happiness?”
― quote from Zen in the Martial Arts
“They say asteroids hit the moon pretty often, which is how the moon gets its crater, but this one is going to be the biggest asteroid ever to hit it and on a clear night you should be able to see the impact when it happens, maybe even with the naked eye but certainly with binoculars. They made it sound pretty dramatic, but I still don't think it's worth three homework assignments.”
― Susan Beth Pfeffer, quote from Life As We Knew It
“Exile is a dream of a glorious return. Exile is a vision of revolution: Elba, not St Helena. It is an endless paradox: looking forward by always looking back. The exile is a ball hurled high into the air. ”
― Salman Rushdie, quote from The Satanic Verses
“when it comes to fashion, even the most sensible woman is not to be trusted.”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God
“Someday being with Dex will be a distant memory. This fact makes me sad too. Its the initial stages of grief that seem to be worst but in some ways, Its sadder as time goes by and you consider how much they're missed in your life.”
― Emily Giffin, quote from Something Borrowed
“If anyone asks you if you’re taken,” I said, “the answer is yes.”
“I think I can live with that,” he promised.
“Good,” I said. “Because you don’t want to see me be cross.”
“Too late.”
“Shut up and dance, Walt.”
“Shut up and dance, Walt.”
We did—with the music of a psychotic griffin screaming behind us, and the sirens and horns of Brooklyn wailing below. It was quite romantic.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Serpent's Shadow
The Story of a Seagu...
Stalingrad: The Fate...
A Conjuring of Light
The 4-Hour Workweek
The Farthest Shore
Grit: The Banter and...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
