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.
Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.
When you're scared, when you're hanging on, when life is hurting you, then you're going to see what you're really made of.
If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies.
On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right? There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.
If any man has left us for fear of Nero, I shall not account him a coward; but I shall hail as a philosopher any man who has been superior to this fear, and I shall teach him all I know.
I feel like my career is to speak truth to power, and a lot of times, that sounds like troublemaking. If speaking truth is troublemaking, then yes, I will consider myself a professional at that.
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