Wisdom

In this page, there are some of my favourite words of wisdom which I feel have special relevance to Taekwon-do.
They come from a wide range of sources, culture and religions. I hope you enjoy them and benefit from them as much as I have.

Stephen Martinez - IV Degree

Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom.
There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom. But reading is still the path.

Carl Sagan

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Confucius

	Be willing to go where the going may be tough and do the things that are worth doing even though they are difficult.
	Be gentle to the weak and tough to the strong.
	Be content with what you have in money and position but never in skills.
	Always finish what you begin, be it large or small.
	Be a willing teacher to anyone regardless of religion, race or ideology.
	Never yield to repression or threat in the pursuit of a noble cause.
	Teach attitude and skill with action rather than words.
	Always be yourself even though your circumstances may change.
	Be the eternal teacher who teaches with the body when young, with words when old, and by moral precept even after death.

General Choi Hong Hi

"They insulted me; they hurt me;
they defeated me; they cheated me."
In those who harbour such thoughts,
hate will never cease.
"They insulted me; they hurt me;
they defeated me; they cheated me."
In those who do not harbour such thoughts,
hate will cease.
For hate is never conquered by hate.
Hate is conquered by love.
This is an eternal law.
Many do not realise that we must all come to an end here;
but those who do realise this, end their quarrels at once.

Buddha

Like stones rolling down hills, fair ideas reach their objectives despite all obstacles and barriers.
It may be possible to speed or hinder them, but impossible to stop them.

Jose Marti

The gaze should be large and broad. This is the twofold gaze "Perception and Sight".
Perception is strong and sight weak.

Miyamoto Musashi

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Sun Tzu

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Jesus

Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!

Shakespeare

To become the enemy means to think yourself into the enemies position.
In the world people tend to think of a robber trapped in a house as fortified enemy.
However, we think of ‘becoming the enemy‘, feel that the whole world is against us and that there is no escape.
He who is trapped inside is a pheasant. He who enters to arrest is the hawk. You must appreciate this.

Miyamoto Musashi

He who brags of what he will do achieves nothing.

Lao Tze

Once opened the box could never be closed.
But after the myriad swarming troubles came hope.

Greek legend of Pandora’s box

Just as he who gives his life to serve a great idea is admirable, he who avails himself of a great idea to serve
his personal hopes of glory and power is abominable, even if he too risks his life. To give up one's life is the
right only of those who do so unselfishly.

Jose Marti

Not to teach a man who can be taught, is to waste a man; to teach a man who cannot be taught,
is a waste of words. The wise will lose neither men nor words.

Confucius

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

Aristotle

Treat others as you would wish to be treated.

Mencius

Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak.

Frances Bacon