26 Best Self-Defense Quotes: Always Prepared, Always on Alert

There have been countless times in my life when I felt scared, alone, and defenseless, and I never thought I was strong enough to protect myself. However, as incredible as it may sound, reading these self-defense quotes has completely opened my mind and made me realize what I am capable of.

These quotes have helped me find my inner strength and learn what it takes to feel safe. What’s more, they have shown me why it is so important to learn to fend for myself and stand up for those who can’t.

Hopefully, they can do the same for you; they may inspire you to make the necessary changes in your life and never feel afraid again.

Top 26 Self-Defense Quotes About Power, Life, and Strength

Memorable Self-Defense Quotes About Standing Up for Yourself

#1. “Be grateful for the life of those who mass up challenges on the paths to your fulfillment. At least they taught you self-defense!” ― Israelmore Ayivor

#2. “It’s a lose-lose situation to get in a confrontation on the street. If you can break contact and get away, break contact and get away. That’s what you should learn self-defense for.” Jocko Willink

#3. “Emotional self-defense — when you set healthier relationship standards in your life, some people will take it personally. That’s their issue, not yours. The distance isn’t against them; it’s for you. It’s a boundary, not a grudge.” ― Steve Maraboli

#4. “Though violence is not lawful, when it is offered in self-defense or for the defense of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission. The latter befits neither man nor woman. Under violence, there are many stages and varieties of bravery. Every man must judge this for himself. No other person can or has the right.” — Mahatma Gandhi

#5. “Apathy is the self-defense of the powerless.” — Letty Cottin Pogrebin

#6. “Any self-defense situation has the potential to quickly become a “life and death” situation. Therefore, your practice of martial arts should be undertaken as if your very life depends on it.” ― Soke Behzad Ahmadi

Powerful Self-Defense Quotes That Prove It Is Our Basic Right

#7. “The first right of every human being is the right of self-defense. Without that right, all other rights are meaningless. The right of self-defense is not something the government bestows upon its citizens. It is an inalienable right, older than the Constitution itself. It existed prior to government and prior to the social contract of our Constitution.” — Larry Craig

#8. “The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.” — James Monroe

#9. “I don’t even call it violence when it’s in self-defense; I call it intelligence.” — Malcolm X

#10. “You do not have the right to take another human’s life unless it’s in strict self-defense.” Michael Moore

Impactful Self-Defense Quotes That Show How and Why We Should Protect Ourselves

#11. “You must also learn to devise strategies for fending off both attackers and defenders. Exploit aggression, but only in self-defense, the kind of self-defense that announces to all the implacability of your armor, your self-assurance, and affirms the sanctity of your self-esteem. Attack when you must, but not in arrogance. Defend when your values are challenged, but never with the wildfire of anger.” ― Steven Erikson

#12. “My father never raised his hand to any one of his children, except in self-defense.” Fred Allen

#13. “There’s only one basic principle of self-defense ― you must apply the most effective weapon, as soon as possible, to the most vulnerable target.” — Bruce Lee

#14. “Self-defense is so important to know in today’s society. It’s not just that you might get mugged. It’s more for confidence. It’s the way you hold yourself when you walk into a room. Every step you take is surer, and you’re much more aware of your surroundings. So, I think it’s a really important thing, especially for women.” — Milla Jovovich

#15. “The legitimate use of violence can only be that which is required in self-defense.” Ron Paul

#16. “Your self-defense becomes a self-defeat when you are doing it for selfish reasons! It’s not about you and your pocket alone; let it be for the collective joy of your entire neighborhood and beyond!”― Israelmore Ayivor

Self-Defense Quotes to Make You Reexamine Life and What It Means to Be Human

#17. “The first rule of self-defense is: Don’t ask your attacker for validation.”― Barbara Dee

#18. “Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.”  — George Orwell

#19. “Lying is an elementary means of self-defense.” — Susan Sontag

#20. “Real schools ought to provide people with techniques of self-defense, but that would mean teaching the truth about the world and about society, and schools couldn’t survive very long if they did that.” — Noam Chomsky

#21. “Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

#22. “The degree to which you’re peculiar and different is the degree to which you must learn to hear people thinking. Just in self-defense, you have to learn, where is their kindness? Where is their danger? Where is their generosity?” Mike Nichols

#23. “War, except in self-defense, is a failure of moral imagination.” Bill Moyers

#24. “Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one.” Gloria Steinem

#25. “Beyond the purposes of self-defense or imminent danger, my Catholic faith teaches me and millions of other Americans that we do not get to decide who lives or who dies; only the good Lord does.” — Matt Rosendale

#26. “In fact, if law were restricted to protecting all persons, all liberties, and all properties; if law were nothing more than the organized combination of the individual’s right to self-defense; if law were the obstacle, the check, the punisher of all oppression and plunder — is it likely that we citizens would then argue much about the extent of the franchise?”― Frédéric Bastiat

To Conclude

If these self-defense quotes can teach us anything, it’s that self-defense can take many shapes and mean different things. It can be physical or emotional, for ourselves or for others. Either way, it’s something that no one can take away from us as it’s our basic right.