After I received my blue belt, I soon recognized that the belts were simply an external representation of an inner experience, and that they mattered little compared to the person I was becoming.

Jiu Jitsu has given me an education in education, which I now see is the most valuable education there is.

Things can be added, but that doesn't mean that anything is missing.

Habits are infinitely more beneficial to the aspiring student than motivation. Motivation may get you started, but habits keep you going.

Just know that the achievement of anything grand takes consistent effort year after year. Motivation can uphold you intermittently, but it has too few calories to sustain a life.

Systems and processes will always surpass motivation.

We see that happiness is not comfort. Happiness is the freedom to choose one's own way.

Jiu Jitsu uses us to express itself, and the best thing we can do to is to become a vehicle capable of expressing Jiu Jitsu with all of its perfection minus our imperfections.

I have found that the morning is far more accessible when a good book awaits you.

When you realize you are no longer made of glass, you lose the desire to demonstrate that fragility in others.

We are force-fed beliefs through incessant advertisements by a culture that ceaselessly fosters our conformity to values which are of no service to the individual.

Our hearts are bound together, ' he said, 'and I am free to decide who I love. And what I want. Nothing - not the pressure of my family, or what anyone else thinks - matters.

My beauty is my eccentricity, when I am out people stare at me and speak, look at that creative guy, unique guy, different guy.

Death does that: it makes everyone feel sentimental. When we stand in front of a coffin, we all see only what is good or what we want to see.

I'm planning to be the youngest contestant in the Top 32, and I'm planning to be the youngest person in the Top 10.

Different people, in good faith, can look at the same fact and interpret it differently. But thats where an interesting conversation begins.

Follow the way of virtue. Follow the way joyfully through this world and on beyond.

Restrain yourself... and gloat in silence. I'll have no jubilation here. It is an impious thing to exult over the slain.

My father being an outdoors person, he used to take us on quite a few adventures thorugh the wild areas down there, introducing us to alligators and rattlesnakes and all the trees and plants.

Don't follow your feeling. Just follow the word.

It’s not how much something’s worth today, it’s what it’s worth in five or 10 years.