Jet Li is a Chinese actor famous for his martial arts skills and portrayals of noble heroes.
He started wushu training at nine winning his first competition in China.
By 1974 he toured the U.S. met President Nixon and won his first national championship retiring in 1979.
Li’s film debut was in 1982’s “Shaolin Si” a huge hit in China.
He later directed and starred in “Born to Defense” (1986) and collaborated with director Tsui Hark in several films including “Once Upon a Time in China” (1991).
His Hollywood debut was in “Lethal Weapon 4” (1998) and he continued to work in both China and Hollywood. Notable films include “Hero” (2002) “Unleashed” (2005) and “Fearless” (2006).
He also appeared in “The Expendables” series and Disney’s 2020 “Mulan” remake.
In this article, I have picked the top quotes by Jet Li.
Best Jet Li Quotes
I’ve been learning martial arts since I was 8 years old. ~ Jet Li.
I believe the world is one big family, and we need to help each other. ~ Jet Li.
When I lived in Hong Kong, I felt that Hong Kong is my family. ~ Jet Li.
A mob is a group of persons with heads but no brains. ~ Jet Li.
I stepped into the martial arts movie market when I was only 16. ~ Jet Li.
Failure is a fuel for excuses. ~ Jet Li.
You can beat me up, but don’t touch my hair, I will kill you! ~ Jet Li.
In martial arts, the biggest enemy is self. Inside you struggle because you want to prove something. ~ Jet Li.
But recently I’ve, the past few years, I’m more focused on meditation. It’s not a physical part. It’s more mental part, to understand life. ~ Jet Li.
My wife wanted my children to have some Chinese culture and education. She believes the children need to learn two languages and two cultures. ~ Jet Li.
Zhang Yimou is an artist. Sometimes we did only two or three shots a day because we were waiting for the sun. ~ Jet Li.
When you have a friend you work with for 15 years, you become like brothers. ~ Jet Li.
Working on a film, the setup for an action sequence takes a long time, and we need to shoot the scene many times to get different angles. ~ Jet Li.
Top Jet Li Quotes
I hope everyone can examine what is the most important relationship in life – the relationship between parent and child. ~ Jet Li.
One cannot choose how one’s life begins but one can choose to face the end with courage. ~ Jet Li.
Zhang Yimou tried to use martial arts to talk about Chinese culture, Chinese people. What do they think, what do they want and what do they hope. ~ Jet Li.
Zhang is a friend of mine: he said forget about acting and just do normal things in the movie. ~ Jet Li.
I can watch CNN on television or the Internet to find out what happened in Hong Kong ten minutes ago. After all, it doesn’t matter where something is made, we’re all part of the same big family now. ~ Jet Li.
A weapon isn’t good or bad, depends on the person who uses it. ~ Jet Li.
Everywhere I go, I still have time to meditate. People think meditating is sitting there, nobody bothering you, but you can even talk and still meditate. ~ Jet Li.
I knew nothing about martial arts. The coach told me I was talented with learning martial arts, and put me in a school. Three years later I got my first championship in China. ~ Jet Li.
Watching movies in the U.S. is great fun because they get every joke, they smile, they laugh so much; it’s a great feeling. ~ Jet Li.
I remember when I was 11, I did some Kung-Fu demonstrations in Hong Kong in 1974. ~ Jet Li.
Famous Jet Li Quotes
I think the most important is when I was young, I learnt martial arts; that is my special key. ~ Jet Li.
I didn’t go to normal children school. I went to sports school when I was 8. So I studied martial arts. ~ Jet Li.
Every President that went to China, I would meet them and have dinner and talk about the past and the future. That was in the ’70s. ~ Jet Li.
Tibetan Buddhism, has inspired me and accelerated my understanding of life. ~ Jet Li.
This film ‘Hero’ talks about the peace of Chinese people. ~ Jet Li.
You can use martial arts to tell a different story. Ang Lee used martial arts in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ to talk about love. ~ Jet Li.
Popular Jet Li Quotes
I stepped into the martial arts movie market when I was only 16. I think I have proved my ability in this field and it won’t make sense for me to continue for another five or 10 years. ~ Jet Li.
Martial arts have two parts. One is external, other internal. The external is physical part. The internal is philosophy of how to be, what kind of person learns martial arts. ~ Jet Li.
You need to drop down. Nobody is perfect, nobody is superhero. ~ Jet Li.
My wife is the boss at home, and my daughters are the bosses. I am just the worker. We are a very warm family and very happy. ~ Jet Li.
The audience makes the decision of what kind of actor they want to watch. I always have said the real boss is the audience. ~ Jet Li.
If you are always allowed to stop training whenever you feel discomfort, you will find it too easy to give yourself permission to quit. ~ Jet Li.
I can feel very brave through all the action scenes in front of the people who are on the set, but when a girl comes close to me my face turns red because I’m so shy. ~ Jet Li.
I never stopped studying Buddhism. In the past few years, in between movies, I do a retreat. ~ Jet Li.
I am so happy because I want more people to like martial arts movie not just martial arts audience. Even martial arts can be used in comedy, in drama, in horror movies, in different kinds of movies. ~ Jet Li.
Motivational Jet Li Quotes
In the States, you can buy Chinese food. In Beijing you can buy hamburger. It’s very close. Now I feel the world become a big family, like a really big family. You have many neighbors. Not like before, two countries are far away. ~ Jet Li.
I study more of truth and enlightening. I had to go the next level to talk about life. ~ Jet Li.
Learn the way and find your own way. ~ Jet Li.
Hong Kong film audiences are very quiet. It’s their culture. ~ Jet Li.
I need to talk about Chinese culture. We have deep, strong philosophy and culture. I want to share some information, tell the worldwide audience. ~ Jet Li.
Wushu is a move in Chinese, a physical move. An attack. Wushu is like an art. ~ Jet Li.
Usually action films have a formula: good guy gets in trouble, his wife dies, friends have problems, so he goes to the mountain, learns martial arts, comes back, and kills the bad guy. ~ Jet Li.
Inspiring Jet Li Quotes
I think ‘Hero’ is not a real martial arts movie; it is not about violence, or formula. ~ Jet Li.
Hero shows you how to solve the problem – yourself. ~ Jet Li.
My manager introduced me to the ‘Rise to Honor’ team. I was curious about what it took to be involved in video games, a completely new form of entertainment to me. ~ Jet Li.
While films are a very visual and emotional artistic medium, video games take it one step further into the realm of a unique personal experience. ~ Jet Li.
I spend more time learning about Buddhism than English, which is why my English today is still bad. ~ Jet Li.
There is no pure success. I am action actor. I have broken almost every piece of my body. ~ Jet Li.
Everything too fast is not good but everything too slow is also not good. You need balance. That’s why I like martial arts: it always tells you how to control your body, your mind, your heart. Balance. Balance can keep the world’s peace. I think that’s a very good thing. ~ Jet Li.
And lot of Asian audiences and reporters don’t like me to act as a bad guy. But I think I want to become an actor, I want to try different way. ~ Jet Li.
Bruce Lee was very famous. I watched his movies and he is amazing. He is a martial arts master, his philosophy, his movement, both physically and mentally, were very strong. ~ Jet Li.
I want to thank my mum, my daddy, my coach, my teacher, everybody in my life. ~ Jet Li.
I do some of my stunts for the things I have learned. But if it is for something I have never learned, then I use a double. ~ Jet Li.
So these were the 57 top Jet Li quotes about his life, success, family and martial arts.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Sebastian Stan quotes and James Brown quotes.
