Self Defence Quotes

• Self-defence, self-confidence, discipline and self control. The values you learn are priceless.

  Rickson Gracie

  Art, Self Confidence, Discipline

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• I don't even call it violence when it's in self defense; I call it intelligence.

  Malcolm X

  Self, Defense, Violence

  Spike Lee, Ralph Wiley, Malcolm X (1992). “By any means necessary: the trials and tribulations of the making of Malcolm X”, Hyperion Books

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• We need to teach our children how to debate the major life issues. Debate strengthens their beliefs and enables them to defend themselves against ideologies that are going to come their way.

  Jim Rohn

  Children, Issues, Needs

  FaceBook post by Jim Rohn from Jan 25, 2016

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• Arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order.

  Thomas Paine

  Gun, Order, Law

  Thomas Paine (2014). “Selected Writings of Thomas Paine”, p.4, Yale University Press

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• If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim.

  Jeff Cooper

  Judging, Police, Doe

  Jeff Cooper (2006). “Principles of Personal Defense: Revised Edition”, p.44, Paladin Press

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• The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world not destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside ... Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them ... the weak will become prey to the strong.

  Thomas Paine

  Strong, Gun, Weak Will

  Thomas Paine (2014). “Selected Writings of Thomas Paine”, p.4, Yale University Press

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• Nonviolence becomes meaningless if violence is permitted for self-defence.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Self, Violence, Defence

  Mahatma Gandhi (1949). “Communal Unity”

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• Humour has always been a self-defence mechanism for me.

  Brooke Shields

  Self, Humour, Defence

  "Brooke Shields: My family values" by Elaine Lipworth, www.theguardian.com. September 3, 2010.

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• No war ought ever to be undertaken but under circumstances which render all intercourse of courtesy between the combatants impossible. It is a bad thing that men should hate each other; but it is far worse that they should contract the habit of cutting one another's throats without hatred. War is never lenient but where it is wanton; when men are compelled to fight in self-defence, they must hate and avenge: this may be bad; but it is human nature.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Peace, War, Hate

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• I always make it a rule to let the other fellow fire first. If a man wants to fight, I argue the question with him and try to show him how foolish it would be. If he can't be dissuaded, why then the fun begins but I always let him have first crack. Then when I fire, you see, I have the verdict of self-defence on my side. I know that he is pretty certain in his hurry, to miss. I never do.

  Ben Thompson

  Fun, Fighting, Men

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• By his willingly renouncing self-defence, the Christian affirms his absolute adherence to Jesus, and his freedom from the tyranny of his own ego. The exclusiveness of this adherence is the only power which can overcome evil.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Jesus, Self

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.92, SCM Press

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• Lying is the most simple form of self-defence.

  Susan Sontag

  Lying, Simple, Self

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• Legitimate steps of self-defence which Israel takes in its war against Palestinian terror - actions which any sovereign state is obligated to undertake to ensure the security of its citizens - are presented by those who hate Israel as aggressive, Nazi-like steps.

  Ariel Sharon

  Hate, War, Israel

  "We must rely on ourselves, says Sharon" by Chris McGreal, www.theguardian.com. January 26, 2005.

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• A decent government with an effective, but not gratuitously violent, police force and a fair court system are essential. This deters and incapacitates psychopaths, bullies and hotheads - and if it earns the confidence of the people, they don't have to become violent in self-defence.

  Steven Pinker

  Government, Self, People

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• Doesn't the fight for survival also justify swindle and theft? In self defence, anything goes.

  Imelda Marcos

  Fighting, Self, Survival

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The United Nations charter gives every nation the right to self defence, therefore when the American embassies were bombed it was a matter of time before the Americans responded by going for what they suspected were the causes of the attack.

  Benazir Bhutto

  Self, Giving, Matter

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• The strength to kill is not essential for self-defence; one ought to have the strength to die.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Courage, Self, Essentials

  Mahatma Gandhi (2005). “All Men Are Brothers”, p.93, A&C Black

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• Daughters could survive a powerful mother, but boys found it almost impossible. Such boys were often severely damaged and spent the rest of their lives running away from their mothers, or from anybody who remotely reminded them of their mothers; either that, or they became their mothers, in a desperate, misguided act of psychological self defence.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Daughter, Mother, Running

  FaceBook post by Alexander McCall Smith from Dec 12, 2016

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• At the bottom of religious persecution is the doctrine of self-defence; that is to say, the defence of the soul. If the founder of Christianity had plainly said: 'It is not necessary to believe in order to be saved; it is only necessary to do, and he who really loves his fellow-men, who is kind, honest, just and charitable, is to be forever blest' - if he had only said that, there would probably have been but little persecution.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Religious, Believe, Men

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• If she and Sam ever had kids, they'd be gluten-intolerant out of self-defence.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Kids, Self, Gluten

  Maggie Stiefvater (2014). “Shiver Series (Shiver, Linger, Forever, Sinner)”, p.1006, Scholastic UK

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• I can't bear to be on a train without a book", she announced. " It's a form of self-defence in a way" .

  John Boyne

  Book, Self, Way

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• All knives and forks were working away at a rate that was quite alarming; very few words were spoken; and everybody seemed to eat his utmost, in self defence, as if a famine were expected to set in before breakfast-time to-morrow morning, and it had become high time to assert the first law of nature.

  Charles Dickens

  Funny, Morning, Food

  Charles Dickens (2006). “Martin Chuzzlewit: Easyread Edition”, p.423, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• It would have been very alarming - morally, and in other ways too - if an attack of that nature, the 11 September attacks, had not aroused in us and in our governments and societies the spirit of self-defence. If that had not been one of the responses it seems to me there would have been very grave cause for concern.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Government, Self, Way

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• Whether it is under the guise of survival and self-defence or directly expressed through dominion and greed, the failure to recognize the common humanity shared by us all lies at the heart of our difficulties. To overcome it, we should begin to develop, from the level of the individual through that of society to the world at large, what I call a sense of universal responsibility; a deep respect for every living being who lives on this one small planet and calls it home.

  Dalai Lama

  Lying, Home, Heart

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• I would, therefore, say that for no reason whatsoever, except in self-defense, should one think of killing any animal.

  Morarji Desai

  Animal, Thinking, Self

  "19th World Vegetarian Congress 1967". The British Vegetarian, ivu.org. March/April 1968.

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