Kung Fu Quotes

MASTER KAN : "Seek ... not to contend. We know that where there is no contention there is neither defeat nor victory. The supple willow does not contend against the storm, yet it survives."

MASTER PO: "Vengeance is a water vessel with a hole. It carries nothing but the promise of emptiness."  YOUNG CAINE: "Shall I then repay injury always with kindness?"  MASTER PO: "Repay injury with justice and forgiveness, but kindness always with kindness."

CAINE: "I know about war. It is a word men use to clothe the nakedness of their killing."

MASTER PO: "To feel shame for no cause is a waste. To feel shame for cause is also a waste; for you must rather spend time correcting that of which you are ashamed."

CAINE: "How does one find the strength within himself?"  MASTER PO: "By being one with all that is without himself."

MASTER KAN: "If while building a house, a carpenter strikes a nail and it proves faulty by bending, does the carpenter lose faith in all nails and stop building his house?"

CAINE: "Between giving up and making bombs must lie many paths."

MASTER PO: "I have three treasures which I hold and keep. The first is mercy for from mercy comes courage. The second is frugality from which comes generosity to others. The third is humility for from it comes leadership."  CAINE: "Strange treasures. How shall I hold them and keep them? In memory?"  MASTER PO: "No ... not in memory but in your deeds."

CAINE: "A worker is known by his tools: a shovel for a man who digs; an ax for a woodsman. A gun is not a tool for peace."

CAINE: "I was taught a good soldier is not violent. A fighter is not angry. A victor is not vengeful."

MASTER PO: "Peace lies not in the world ... but in the man who walks the path."

MASTER PO: "In a heart that is one with nature though the body contends, there is no violence. And in the heart that is not one with nature, though the body be at rest, there is always violence. Be, therefore, like the prow of a boat, it cleaves the water yet it leaves in its wake water unbroken."

CAINE: "If you plant rice, rice will grow. If you plant fear, fear will grow."

MASTER PO: "In time you will learn to fear only fear itself."

CAINE: "If you trust me completely, I can help you. If I tell you, you are not within a prison, the prison is within you, can you believe that?"

CAINE: "Let all effort flow out of your body. All heat flow from your body. The weight of your body becomes less and less. Until the body becomes one with the spirit which is as light as a feather ... as a breath ... as nothing at all."

MASTER KAN : "Recognize that all words are part false and part true, limited by our imperfect understanding. But strive always for honesty within yourself."

CAINE: "I seek not to know all the answers but to understand the questions."

MASTER PO: "Learn first how to live. Learn second how not to kill. Learn third how to live with death. Learn fourth how to die."

MASTER KAN: "When you must choose between one good and another or one evil and another, remember this: if men would contend with you, seek not their death but choose your own life."

CAINE: "You own nothing that you may be owned by nothing."
TEXT AT END OF SHOW: "That we are possessed by what we would possess, held in bondage to earth and vested things by the attachments we form for them, even so holy a thing as a chalice, so slight a thing as a pebble."

MASTER PO: "The undiscerning mind is like the root of a tree ... it absorbs equally all that it touches ... even the poison that would kill it."

MASTER PO: "Be like the mirror ... Allow no evil to pass through you. Reflect it to its source."

MASTER KAN: "Still water is like glass. It is a perfect level. A carpenter could use it. The heart of a wise man is tranquil and still. Thus it is the mirror of heaven and earth. The glass of everything. Be like still water. You look into it and see yourself."

CAINE: "A wise man does not contend therefore no one can contend against him. Yield and overcome."

RELIGIOUS LEADER: "If a man strikes me with a stick, I have three choices.  I can strike him back, I can stand still and be injured or killed, or I can walk away."  CAINE: "There is another choice."  RELIGIOUS LEADER: "What other choice?"  CAINE: "You can take the stick away from him."

MASTER KAN: "He who attacks must vanquish. He who defends must merely survive."

MASTER PO: "The Sage says, 'A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and cold. Green plants are tender and filled with sap. At their death they are withered and dry. Therefore, the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death. The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.'"