1) “Discipline and consistency. I owe these two factors all have attained in my life. Things have never happened overnight. Results have appeared as a consequence of decades long toil. It is necessary to persist.”
Master Carlos Gracie Jr.

2) “I drill techniques – my main techniques, my “A” move, my “A Game” sweep, the guard pass and sub I hit the most, over and over again. I’ve drilled them so many times, my body just reacts now. I can go out and let instinct take over. Most of our training is drilling, based on our individual games and what we do best.  Before a big tournament I stick to the stuff I’ve been doing, and just drill it to death….If you’re thinking about what to do next, your competitor is already moving to his next move. It’s best to just react and let your body take over.”
Keenan Cornelius – Gracie Mag

3) “Dad reasoned that whether we were better than someone else should not be focus because our position in relation to others was out of our control. We could not control another’s performance nor could we control how we would be ranked.  All we could do was our best…Instead he wanted us to try very hard to give the best possible effort to become the best we could be and let the results take care of themselves.”
Coach John Wooden

4) “The perfect technique is one without much effort or conscious thought applied at the right time in the right direction, with the right amount of force – a spontaneous reaction to the opportunity presented by the opponent’s movement.”
Unknown Judoka

5) “The mountain-sea spirit that it is bad to repeat the same thing several times several times when fighting the enemy. There may be no help but to do something twice, but do not try it a third time. If you once make an attack and fail, there is little chance of success if you use the same approach again. If you attempt a technique which you have previously tried unsuccessfully and fail yet again, then you must change your attacking method.
Miyamoto Musashi “A Book of Five Rings”

6) “One of the quotes that I use a lot – besides you’re only as good as the guys you sweat and bleed with – is that iron sharpens iron. So that one man sharpens another. I think that it is very true. If you are not in a training environment where you are getting smacked in the head, you are getting tapped out, you are getting challenged on a daily basis, then you are not getting any better. You’re not improving. Your workout partners are a very important piece of your progression as an athlete and the character that you are building as a person as well. Those are key components and finding that right place is a piece of it.”
Randy Couture “Wrestling For Fighting”

7) “The most interesting aspect of jiu-jitsu is… of course the techniques are great…but the sensibility of the opponent, sense of touch, the weight, the momentum, the transition from one movement to another. That’s the amazing thing about it. You must allow yourself to go as on auto pilot. You don’t know exactly where you’re going until the movement happened because you can not anticipate what is going to happen. You must allow yourself to be in a zero point; a neutral point. Be relaxed and connected with the variations. Flow with the go.”
Rickson Gracie – “Choke”

8) “Time on the mat will eventually surpass talent and ability.”
Gracie Mag

9) “…look he carry all of my weight. That’s another theory of jiu-jitsu. When I rest I should put him to work so I don’t get tired and he get tired. He spend energy.”
Demian Maia

10) “Catch him in between the movements.”
Xande Ribeiro

11) “At first repetition is what counts”, says Carlos Gracie Jr. “I teach my students to repeat the moves to exhaustion, until it enters their subconscious and they therefore can apply them automatically, without thinking. Later on, once the combat situations have become complex I try and stimulate them to be creative.”
Master Carlos Gracie Jr.

12) “It would be like asking a judo player to describe how he identifies the split second, where the opponent is in the exact right position to be thrown through the air. There are too many details for the conscious brain to observe and register so pure intuition takes over.”
Christian Graugart – The BJJ Globe Trotter

13) “If you guys attach to each other very hard, and hold each other very tight what happens is you don’t move, your opponent doesn’t move. Nothing happens in the training. That’s not Gracie Jiu-jitsu. The real Gracie Jiu-jitsu – you don’t hold tight, you kind of hold the opponent with open hands. You let him move and after that you counter him. It is 100% counter attacks. Helio Gracie was light – 140 lbs. – and was able to perform moves against much larger opponents because he brought those tricks to make the opponent commit himself to a move first so you always catch an opponent off guard. It is a very intelligent way to let somebody move first, in an empty move, you let him go first.
You no longer there to receive the move; now you are doing your own move in an empty body, an unprepared body. Thy at is the idea.”
Pedro Sauer

14) “In the fight, only one person can be comfortable. Your job is to transfer the comfortable from your opponent to you.” 
Rickson Gracie

15) “If you think, you are late. If you are late, you use strength. If you use strength, you tire. And if you tire, you die.”
Saulo Ribeiro 

16) “A black belt only covers two inches of your as* – you have to cover the rest.” 
Royce Gracie

17) “I am a shark, the ground is my ocean, and most people don’t know how to swim.”
Jean Jacques Machado

What is your favorite inspirational quote for your jiu-jitsu?


Credits: Mark Mullen 
GB Black belt from GB Calgary, Canada
Twitter: @MarkMullenBJJ