Who is Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was an American-born martial artist, philosopher, instructor, martial arts actor and the founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts system, widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century and a cultural icon. He was the father of actor Brandon Lee and of actress Shannon Lee.
Bruce Lee Quotes
1. Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.
2. 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.
3. Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.
4. I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude
5. If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal
6. A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
7. Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.
8. Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
9. Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.
10. Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.
11. A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.
12. The possession of anything begins in the mind.
13. I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.
14. If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.
15. Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
16. Choose the positive. You have choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.
17. If there is a God, he is within. You don’t ask God to give you things, you depend on God for your inner theme.
18. If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.
19. A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.
20. Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
21. Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
22. Obey the principles without being bound by them.
23. It’s not what you give, it’s the way you give it.
24. A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.
25. Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality
26. If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you
27. Know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience. To realize that it’s just an inconvenience, that it is not a catastrophe, but just an unpleasantness, is part of coming into your own, part of waking up
28. For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime
29. Take no thought of who is right or wrong, or who is better than. Be not for or against
30. To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to either spend or waste and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever
31. The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be
32. Self-knowledge involves relationship. To know oneself is to study one self in action with another person. Relationship is a process of self evaluation and self revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself – to be is to be related
33. Life is never stagnation. It is constant movement, un-rhythmic movement, as we as constant change. Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.
34. I wish neither to possess nor to be possessed. I no longer covet ‘paradise’. More important, I no longer fear ‘hell’. The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning but I did not take it. My ailment came from within myself, but I did not observe it, until this moment. Now I see that I will never find the light unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, consuming myself
35. Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul
36. The doubters said, ‘Man can not fly,’ The doers said, ‘Maybe, but we’ll try,’ And finally soared In the morning glow While non-believers Watched from below
37. Reality is apparent when one ceases to compare. There is “what is” only when there is no comparison at all, and to live with what is, is to be peaceful
38. Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can
39. The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering
40. Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind
41. Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.
42. It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.
43. Many people dedicate their lives to actualizing a concept of what they should be like, rather than actualizing themselves. This difference between self-actualization and self-image actualization is very important. Most people live only for their image.
44. Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.
45. Boards don’t hit back.
46. The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest
47. Everything you do, if not in a relaxed state will be done at a lesser level than you are proficient. Thus the tensed expert marksman will aim at a level less than his/her student
48. Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.
49. When one has reached maturity in the art, one will have a formless form. It is like ice dissolving in water. When one has no form, one can be all forms; when one has no style, he can fit in with any style.
50. The athlete who is building muscles though weight training should be very sure to work adequately on speed and flexibility at the same time. In combat, without the prior attributes, a strong man will be like the bull with its colossal strength futilely pursuing the matador or like a low-geared truck chasing a rabbit
51. You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world
52. What you habitually think largely determines what you will ultimately become
53. If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level
54. All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns
55. Life is better lived than conceptualized. This writing can be less demanding should I allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I’ve come to understand that life is best to be lived — not to be conceptualized. If you have to think, you still do not understand
56. Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier
57. The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits
58. To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is
59. The knowledge and skills you have achieved are meant to be forgotten so you can float comfortably in emptiness, without obstruction
60. Fear comes from uncertainty; we can eliminate the fear within us when we know ourselves better. As the great Sun Tzu said: “When you know yourself and your opponent, you will win every time. When you know yourself but not your opponent, you will win one and lose one. However, when you do not know yourself or your opponent, you will be imperiled every time
