Respect can never be demanded and very seldom encouraged, and even though you may want respect, you must first earn it and then maintain whatever earned it for you in the first place. You can work for years on gaining respect from your students, and you can lose it in a single sentence or moment. J.R.West Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.   Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good..."   Galatians 6:9-10   Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18 All Martial Artists are beginners; Some of us have just been beginning a little longer!   J. R. West You can tell how hard an instructor has worked for his rank by how hard he makes others work to get it. Before you promote a student to black belt, ask yourself this question. If my reputation as a teacher is to be judged by observing only this student, how will I be remembered? Martial arts success is not measured by the destination, but rather by the distance traveled, and what is learned along the way!   J. R. West  When someone whom I have helped, Or in whom I have placed great hopes, Mistreats me in extremely hurtful ways, May I regard him still as my precious teacher. -Shantideva     In these modern times, many men are wounded for not having weapons or knowledge of their use.   - Achille Marozzo,   Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.    The 10 Cannot's of Abraham Lincoln You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.   It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and dust and blood; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in worthy causes; who at best, knows in the end of the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat --- President Theodore Roosevelt   When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self. ---Confucius "Of every one hundred men, Ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are nothing but targets, Nine are real fighters...We are lucky to have them...They make the battle. Ah, but the One, One of them is a Warrior...and He will bring the others back." -Hericletus (circa 500 B.C.) Martial Arts teaches a simple secret: the development of better life is dependent on bettering yourself. Martial Arts offers no miracles except the miracle of your own existence and your human potential. Remember that you are a part of the universe. To ruin life or to waste it is to ruin a piece of the universe. With your birth you hold the key that opens the door to heaven. The most important duty in each person's life is to use that key and to make his or her life a manifestation of the heaven that it lies within our power to create." - Saotome Sensei   No matter how you may excel in the art of Te, and in your scholastic endeavors, nothing is more important than your behavior and your humanity as observed in daily life. -Nagamine, 1976   The arts of peace and war are like two wheels of a cart, which, lacking one, will have difficulty in standing. -Kuroda Nagamasa 1568-1623 A.D. Achieve results, but never glory in them. Achieve results, but do not boast. Achieve results, but do not be proud. Achieve results, because it is the natural way. Achieve results, but not through violence. -Lao Tzu A person's character and depth of mind is seen by his behavior. Thus, one should understand that even the walls and fences have eyes&ldots;one should not take a single step in vain, or speak a word in a way that others may speak of him as shallow. -Shiba Yoshimasa 1350-1410 A.D. Take the arrow in your forehead, but never in your back. -Hwa Rang maxim I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies: for the hardest victory is the victory over self. -Aristotle What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of the buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow, which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. -Crowfoot, a Blackfoot warrior, 1890 “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”—Ronald Reagan   I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. --Albert Einstein   The reverse side also has a reverse side.   - Japanese proverb If strength were all, tiger would not fear scorpion. fortune cookie Matthew 10:32 "Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven"