Fighting Sayings and Quotes

When life gets tough, it is understandable to want to throw in the towel. Whatever your struggle may be, don’t give up. Let the collection of wise and insightful fighting quotes below put a fire in your belly when you feel like giving up.

There's a moment in fighting when strength of muscle ain't everything because the enemy has already given you enough energy to gain the victory. Toba Beta
A fight is not won by one punch or kick. Either learn to endure or hire a bodyguard. Bruce Lee
You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war. Napoleon Bonaparte
To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. Sun Tzu
If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. Sun Tzu
In a way fighting was just like using magic. You said the words, and they altered the universe. By merely speaking you could create damage and pain, cause tears to fall, drive people away, make yourself feel better, make your life worse. Lev Grossman
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times Bruce Lee
Everyone has a plan until they've been hit. Joe Lewis
Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes. Any fool can be brave on a battlefield when it's be brave or else be killed. Margaret Mitchell
The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. David Friedman
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win. Mahatma Gandhi
Whenever we want to combat our enemies, first and foremost we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives. Criss Jami
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Sun Tzu
I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it. George Bernard Shaw
The full value of this life can only be got by fighting; the violent take it by storm. And if we have accepted everything we have missed something -- war. This life of ours is a very enjoyable fight, but a very miserable truce. G. K. Chesterton
Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose. Baltasar Gracin Y Morales
That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms. George Bernard Shaw
To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can. Og Mandino
Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory. Norman Vincent Peale
For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. Sun Tzu
Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war. Ernest Hemingway
The foolish race of mankind are swarming below in the night; they shriek and rage and quarrel -- and all of them are right. Heinrich Heine
Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. Mahatma Gandhi
Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe. John Milton
Of old the expert in battle would first make himself invincible and then wait for his enemy to expose his vulnerability. Sun Tzu
An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind. Mahatma Gandhi
The road to hell was paved with the bones of men who did not know when to quit fighting. Paulette Jiles
We are twice armed if we fight with faith. Plato
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. Mark Twain
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up. Vince Lombardi
He who hesitates, meditates in a horizontal position. Ed Parker
A military man can scarcely pride himself on having smitten a sleeping enemy; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. Isoroku Yamamoto
We make war that we may live in peace. Aristotle
Where there is no peril in the fight, there is no glory in the triumph. Pierre Corneille
You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. Margaret Thatcher
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. Friedrich Nietzsche
There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. Woodrow T. Wilson
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Salvor Hardin
Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one. Bertrand Russell
Nobody can hurt me without my permission. Mahatma Gandhi
Blood is just red sweat. Enson Inoue
Let him that is without stone among you cast the first thing he can lay his hands on. Robert Frost
You cannot love a thing without wanting to fight for it. G. K. Chesterton
Wise men do not quarrel with each other. Danish Proverb
People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes. Abigail Van Buren
Quarrel? Nonsense; we have not quarreled. If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends? George Eliot
A quarrel between friends, when made up, adds a new tie to friendship. St. Francis de Sales
The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people. Cesar Chavez
Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning. George S. Patton
The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong--but that is the way to bet it. Damon Runyon
All my life I've been fighting and all my life I've got into trouble from it. Paul Newman
I'm fighting for this woman's life, not her temporal innocence. Ann Bancroft
A colonial war is a very dirty kind of war. You're not fighting armed forces. You're fighting mostly unarmed people. Chomsky
It is always easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. Phyllis Bottome
Satan is not fighting churches; he is joining them. He does more harm by sowing tares than by pulling up wheat. He accomplishes more by imitation than by outright opposition. Vance Havner
It's hard enough resisting the real enemy. That's a full-time job. If we start fighting other Christians, we're fighting two wars— and one of them is suicidal. John Richard Wimber
You are but a poor soldier of Christ if you think you can overcome without fighting, and suppose you can have the crown without the conflict. St. John Chrysostom
Fight the good fight with all thy might; / Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right; / Lay hold on life, and it shall be / Thy joy and crown eternally. John Samuel Bewley Monsell
Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man. Fedor Dostoevsky
The enemy we're fighting is a bit different than the one we war-gamed against. William Wallace
We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. Winston Churchill
I'm going to fight hard. I'm going to give them hell. Harry S. Truman
From the moment a child is born, the death process, and the fight against it, begins. Billy Graham
Fighting comes in many forms. It involves struggle of some sort and a lot of emotion. It's not just a physical act— it can be verbal, too. Elaine Slavens
No matter who starts it, fighting is always the wrong way out of a bad situation. Elaine Slavens
Switzerland is a place where they don't like to fight, so they get people to do their fighting for them while they ski and eat chocolate. Larry David
The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it. Ernest Hemingway
Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. Herbert Hoover
You will never be entirely comfortable. This is the truth behind the champion – he is always fighting something. To do otherwise is to settle. Julien Smith
Wisdom is merely the movement from fighting life to embracing it. Rasheed Ogunlaru
The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. Muhammad Ali
Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting. Napoleon Hill
I've been fighting to be who I am all my life. What’s the point of being who I am, if I can't have the person who was worth all the fighting for? Stephanie Lennox
If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back. Holy Black
Anything worth having is worth fighting for. Susan Elizabeth Phillips
I will not die without fighting for a life I am not yet done living. Bethany Wiggins
As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed. Vincent Van Gogh