Bruce Quotes

Sourced
When you're talking about fighting, as it is, with no rules, well then, baby you'd
better train every part of your body!
Note: Many of Bruce Lee's statements are derived from his own studies of various
schools of philosophy and the martial arts, and are sometimes paraphrases of
previous expressions by others which he wrote down for his own instruction.
Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.
Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like
water.
Nowadays you don't go around on the street kicking people, punching people �
because if you do, well that's it � I don't care how good you are.
Bruce Lee interview on the Pierre Berton Show (1971)
Soon my fists began to swell from hitting his hard head. Right then I realized Wing
Chun was not too practical and began to alter my way of fighting.
Bruce Lee in Black Belt magazine (October 1976)
You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being. Because, I mean I don't
want to be like "As Confucius say," but under the sky, under the heavens there is
but one family. It just so happens that people are different.
Bruce Lee: The Lost Interview (1971)
When you're talking about fighting, as it is, with no rules, well then, baby you'd
better train every part of your body!
All types of knowledge, ultimately mean self knowledge.
Boards don't hit back.
As "Mr. Lee" in Enter the Dragon (1973); Bruce Lee's character said this to
"Oharra" after Oharra had broken a board in the air with his fist.
A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Not thinking, yet not
dreaming. Ready for whatever may come. When the opponent expands, I contract; and
when he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, "I" do not hit, "it"
hits all by itself.
Bruce Lee: Enter the Dragon (1973); In a conversation with an older member of the
temple.
Don't think, feel....it is like a finger pointing towards the moon. Don't
concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory!
Bruce Lee: Enter the Dragon (1973); In a training session with one of the temple
students.
Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.
As quoted in Bruce Lee : Fighting Spirit (1994) by Bruce Thomas (1994), p.44
Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent
graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you
fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life. Do not be
concerned with escaping safely � lay your life before him.
As quoted in Bruce Lee : Artist of Life (1999) edited by John R. Little, p. 192
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.
As quoted in The Art of Expressing the Human Body (1998) edited by John R. Little,
p. 23
Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like
water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless � like water. Now you put water in a
cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle 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.
Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000); here, Lee was reciting lines he wrote for
his short lived role on the TV series Longstreet.
[edit]Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975)
Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and since Jeet
Kune Do has no style, it can fit in with all styles.
Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion.

Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and since Jeet
Kune Do has no style, it can fit in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do
utilizes all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any techniques which
serve its end.
p.12
When there is freedom from mechanical conditioning, there is simplicity. The
classical man is just a bundle of routine, ideas and tradition. If you follow the
classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow �
you are not understanding yourself.
Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created
another pattern and trapped yourself there.
p.25
Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. Awareness is without
choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is
perception. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.
Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion.
This statement probably derives from a famous one of Jiddu Krishnamurti: "Truth is
a pathless land."
[edit]The Warrior Within : The Philosophies of Bruce Lee (1996)
If one loves, one need not have an ideology of love.
The happiness that is derived from excitement is like a brilliant fire � soon it
will go out.
There is no such thing as maturity. There is instead an ever-evolving process of

maturing. Because when there is a maturity, there is a conclusion and a cessation.
That�s the end. That�s when the coffin is closed.
I believe in sleeping.
To contemplate a thing implies maintaining oneself OUTSIDE it, resolved to keep a
distance between it and ourselves.
p. 30
Running water never grows stale. So you just have to 'keep on flowing.'
p. 48
If one loves, one need not have an ideology of love.
p. 64
The happiness that is derived from excitement is like a brilliant fire � soon it
will go out. Before we married, we never had the chance to go out to nightclubs. We
only spent our nights watching TV and chatting. Many young couples live a very
exciting life when they are in love. So, when they marry, and their lives are
reduced to calmness and dullness, they will feel impatient and will drink the
bitter cup of a sad marriage.
p. 66
Of course you�re there. Death is always there. So why was I afraid? Your leap is
swift. Your claws are sharp and merciful. What can you take from me which is not
already yours? . . . Everything I have done until now has been fruitless. It has
led to nothing. There was no other path except that it led to nothing � and before
me now there is only one real fact � Death. The truth I have been seeking � this
truth is Death. Yet Death is also a seeker. Forever seeking me. So � we have met at
last. And I am prepared. I am at peace. Because I will conquer death with death.
p. 77, spoken by Cord, the protagonist of the unproduced film The Silent Flute
Neither. I think of myself as a human being.
p. 87, when asked if he thought of himself as Chinese or American
The Three Stages of Cultivation � The first is the primitive stage. It is a stage
of original ignorance in which a person knows nothing about the art of combat. In a
fight, he simply blocks and strikes instinctively without a concern for what is
right and wrong. Of course, he may not be so-called scientific, but, nevertheless,
being himself, his attacks or defenses are fluid. The second stage � the stage of
sophistication, or mechanical stage � begins when a person starts his training. He
is taught the different ways of blocking, striking, kicking, standing, breathing,
and thinking � unquestionably, he has gained the scientific knowledge of combat,
but unfortunately his original self and sense of freedom are lost, and his action
no longer flows by itself. His mind tends to freeze at different movements for
calculations and analysis, and even worse, he might be called �intellectually
bound� and maintain himself outside of the actual reality. The third stage � the
stage of artlessness, or spontaneous stage � occurs when, after years of serious
and hard practice, the student realizes that after all, gung fu is nothing special.
And instead of trying to impose on his mind, he adjusts himself to his opponent
like water pressing on an earthen wall. It flows through the slightest crack. There
is nothing to try to do but try to be purposeless and formless, like water. All of
his classical techniques and standard styles are minimized, if not wiped out, and
nothingness prevails. He is no longer confined.
p. 108-109
In Jeet Kune Do, it�s not how much you have learned, but how much you have absorbed
from what you have learned. It is not how much fixed knowledge you can accumulate,
but what you can apply livingly that counts. �Being� is more valued than "doing".
p. 117
You have to keep your reflexes so that when you want it � it�s there. When you want
to move � you are moving. And when you move, you are determined to move! Not
accepting even one inch less than 100 percent of your honest feelings. Not anything
less than that. So that is the type of thing you have to train yourself into. To
become one with your feelings so that, when you think � it is.
p. 126
In life, what more can you ask for than to be real? To fulfill one�s potential
instead of wasting energy on [attempting to] actualize one�s dissipating image,
which is not real and an expenditure of one�s vital energy. We have great work
ahead of us, and it needs devotion and much, much energy. To grow, to discover, we
need involvement, which is something I experience every day � sometimes good,
sometimes frustrating. No matter what, you must let your inner light guide you out
of the darkness.
p. 126
None whatsoever.
When asked what major religion he was affiliated with in 1972 by journalist Alex
Ben Block, p. 128
To be perfectly frank, I really do not.
When asked if he believed in God, p. 128
I believe in sleeping.
When asked by his brother Robert if he believed in God, p. 129
There is no such thing as maturity. There is instead an ever-evolving process of
maturing. Because when there is a maturity, there is a conclusion and a cessation.
That�s the end. That�s when the coffin is closed. You might be deteriorating
physically in the long process of aging, but your personal process of daily
discovery is ongoing. You continue to learn more and more about yourself every day.
p. 131
I have come to discover through earnest personal experience and dedicated learning
that ultimately the greatest help is self-help; that there is no other help but
self-help� doing one�s best, dedicating one�s self wholeheartedly to a given task,
which happens to have no end but is an ongoing process. I have done a lot during
these years of my process. A swell in my process, I have changed from self-image
actualization to self-actualization, from blindly following propaganda, organized
truths, etc. to searching internally for the cause of my ignorance.
p. 133
Whether or not we can get together, remember well that art �lives� where absolute
freedom is. With all the training thrown to nowhere, with a mind (if there is such
a verbal substance) perfectly unaware of its own working, with the �self� vanishing
nowhere, the art of JKD attains its perfection.
p. 156
You must have complete determination. The worst opponent you can come across is one
whose aim has become an obsession. For instance, if a man has decided that he is
going to bite off your nose no matter what happens to him in the process, the
chances are he will succeed in doing it. He may be severely beaten up, too, but
that will not stop him from carrying out his objective. That is the real fighter.
p. 161
Walk on.
p. 174
eet Kune Do (1997)

Jeet Kune Do: Bruce Lee's Commentaries on the Martial Way (1997) edited by John
Little
The man who is really serious, with the urge to find out what truth is, has no
style at all. He lives only in what is.
Jeet Kune Do rejects all restrictions imposed by form and formality and emphasizes
the clever use of the mind and body to defend and attack.
Part 2 "Jeet Kune Do � The Fundamentals"
An instructor should exemplify the things he seeks to teach. It will be of great
advantage if you yourself can do all you ask of your students and more.
Part 5 "On training in Jeet Kune Do"
As an instructor, you must be able to distinguish between poor performance caused
by lack of ability or aptitude on the part of the student and poor performance
caused by lack of effort. You should treat the first with patience and the latter
with firmness. You must never apply sarcasm and ridicule.
Part 5 "On training in Jeet Kune Do"
Faith makes it possible to achieve that which man's mind can conceive and believe.
Even today, I dare not say that I have reached a state of achievement. I'm still
learning, for learning is boundless.
Part 6 "Beyond System � The Ultimate Source of Jeet Kune Do"
The man who is really serious, with the urge to find out what truth is, has no
style at all. He lives only in what is.
Take inventory of everyone with whom you have contact.
The intangible represents the real power of the universe. It is the seed of the
tangible.
Faith is a state of mind that can be conditioned through self-discipline. Faith
will accomplish.
Faith makes it possible to achieve that which man's mind can conceive and believe.
Possession of anything begins in the mind.
Thoughts are things.
Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.
The intangible represents the real power of the universe. It is the seed of the
tangible.
The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits.
[edit]Striking Thoughts (2000)
Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living (2000) edited by John Little
Emptiness the starting point.
We all have time to spend or waste, and it is our decision what to do with it. But
once passed, it is gone forever.
We are always in a process of becoming and NOTHING is fixed.
If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving,
be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.
We have finally come back to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, who said
everything is flow, flux, process. There are no "things."
What IS is more important than WHAT SHOULD BE.
Taoist philosophy ... is essentially monistic. ... Matter and energy, Yang and Yin,
heaven and earth, are conceived of as essentially one or as two coexistent poles of
one indivisible whole.
The all illuminating light shines and is beyond the movement of the opposites.
True thusness is the substance of thought, and thought is the function of true
thusness. There is no thought except that of true thusness. Thusness does not move,
but its motion and function are inexhaustible.
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
Don't fear failure. � Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it
is glorious even to fail.
Part I : On First Principles
Emptiness the starting point. � In order to taste my cup of water you must first
empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be
neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty.
p. 2
Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier.
p 2
Life lives; and in the living flow, no questions are raised. The reason is that
life is a living now! So, in order to live life whole-heartedly, the answer is life
simply is.
p. 3
The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and
conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems.
p. 3
The aphorism "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he" contains the secret of life.
p. 4; Lee here quotes Proverbs 23:7 "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he."
Meaning is found in relationship. � Meaning is the relationship of the foreground
figure to the background.
p. 4
Life is never stagnation. It is constant movement, unrhythmic movement, as we as
constant change. Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.
p. 5
Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.
p. 5
The primary reality is not what I think, but that I live, for those also live who
do not think.
p. 7
The timeless moment. � The "moment" has no yesterday or tomorrow. It is not the
result of thought and therefore has no time.
p. 9
Knowledge, surely, is always of time, whereas knowing is not of time. Knowledge is
from a source, from accumulation, from conclusion, while knowing is a movement.
P. 9
To realize freedom the mind has to learn to look at life, which is a vast movement,
without the bondage of time, for freedom lies beyond the field of consciousness �
care for watching, but don't stop and interpret "I am free," then you're living in
a memory of something that has gone before.
p. 9
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 spend or waste, and it is our
decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.
p. 10
Time means a lot to me because, you see, i, too, am also a learner and am often
lost in the joy of forever developing and simplifying. If you love life, don't
waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
p. 10; Here Lee paraphrases a much older English proverb: If you care for life,
don't waste your time; for time is what life is made of. (as quoted in Bordighera
and the Western Riviera (1883) by Frederick Fitzroy Hamilton, p. 189).
Be aware of doing your best to understand the ROOT in life, and realize the DIRECT
and the INDIRECT are in fact a complementary WHOLE. It is to see things as they are
and not to become attached to anything � to be unconscious meant to be be innocent
of the working of a relative (empirical) mind � where there is no abiding of though
anywhere on anything � this is being unbound. This not abiding anywhere is the root
of our life.
p. 11
Concentration is the ROOT of all the higher abilities in man.
p. 11
Seek to understand the root. � It is futile to argue as to which single leaf, which
design of branch, or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the
root, you understand all its blossoming.
p. 11
What we are after is the ROOT and not the branches. The root is the real knowledge;
the branches are surface knowledge. Real knowledge breeds "body feel" and personal
expression; surface knowledge breeds mechanical conditioning and imposing
limitation and squelches creativity.
p. 11
Part II : On Being Human
Flow in the living moment. � We are always in a process of becoming and NOTHING is
fixed. Have no rigid system in you, and you'll be flexible to change with the ever
changing. OPEN yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the TOTAL OPENNESS OF THE
LIVING MOMENT. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose
themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.
p. 13; Unsourced variant: 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.
You cannot force the Now. � But can you neither condemn nor justify and yet be
extraordinarily alive as you walk on? You can never invite the wind, but you must
leave the window open.
p. 13
The Moment is freedom. � I couldn't live by a rigid schedule. I try to live freely
from moment to moment, letting things happen and adjusting to them.
p. 13
The Now is indivisible. � Completeness, the now, is an absence of the conscious
mind to strive to divide that which is indivisible. For once the completeness of
things is taken apart it is no longer complete.
p. 15
The Western approach to reality is mostly through theory, and theory begins by
denying reality � to talk about reality, to go around reality, to catch anything
that attracts our sense-intellect and abstract it away from reality itself. Thus
philosophy begins by saying that the outside world is not a basic fact, that its
existence can be doubted and that every proposition in which the reality of the
outside world is affirmed is not an evident proposition but one that needs to be
divided, dissected and analyzed. It is to stand consciously aside and try to square
a circle.
p. 15 - 16
In Science we have finally come back to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus,
who said everything is flow, flux, process. There are no "things." NOTHINGNESS in
Eastern language is "no-thingness." We in the West think of nothingness as a void,
an emptiness, an nonexistence. In Eastern philosophy and modern physical science,
nothingness � no-thingness � is a form of process, ever moving.
p. 16
What IS is more important than WHAT SHOULD BE. To many people are looking at "what
is" from a position of thinking "what should be."
p. 16
Conditioning obstructs our view of reality. � We do not see IT in its suchness
because of our indoctrination, crooked and twisted.
p. 19
True thusness is without defiling thought; it cannot be known through conception
and thought.
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.
p. 19
Reality is being itself. � It is being itself, in becoming itself. Reality in its
isness, the "isness" of a thing. Thus isness is the meaning � having freedom in its
primary sense � not limited by attachments, confinements, partialization,
complexities.
p. 19
A self-willed man obeys a different law, the one law I, too, hold absolutely sacred
� the human law in himself, his own individual will.
p. 19
One should be in harmony with, not in opposition to, the strength and force of the
opposition. This means that one should do nothing that is not natural or
spontaneous; the important thing is not to strain in any way.
p. 20
The dualistic philosophy reigned supreme in Europe, dominating the development of
Western science. But with the advent of atomic physics, findings based on
demonstrable experiment were seen to negate the dualistic theory, and the trend of
thought since then has been back to the monistic conception of the ancient Taoists.
p.. 21
If thought exists, I who think and the world about which I think also exist; the
one exists but for the other, having no possible separation between them.
Therefore, the world and I are both in active correlation; I am that which sees the
world, and the world is that which is seen by me. I exist for the world and the
world exists for me. ... One sure and primary and fundamental fact is the joint
existence of a subject and of its world. The one does not exist without the other.
I acquire no understanding of myself except as I take account of objects, of the
surroundings. I do not think unless I think of things � and there I find myself.
p. 21
When we hold to the core, the opposite sides are the same if they are seen from the
center of the moving circle. I do not experience; I am experience. I am not the
subject of experience; I am that experience. I am awareness. Nothing else can be I
or can exist.
p. 22
Taoist philosophy ... is essentially monistic. ... Matter and energy, Yang and Yin,
heaven and earth, are conceived of as essentially one or as two coexistent poles of
one indivisible whole.
p. 23
Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void
is all-inclusive; having no opposite, there is nothing which it excludes or
opposes. The all illuminating light shines and is beyond the movement of the
opposites.
p. 23
Like everyone else you want to learn the way to win. But never to accept the way to
lose. To accept defeat � to learn to die � is to be liberated from it. Once you
accept, you are free to flow and to harmonize. Fluidity is the way to an empty
mind. You must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying.
p. 25; Variant: Like everyone else you want to learn the way to win, but never to
accept the way to lose � to accept defeat. To learn to die is to be liberated from
it. So when tomorrow comes you must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of
dying!
As quoted in Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000)
Part III : On Matters of Existence
True thusness is the substance of thought, and thought is the function of true
thusness. There is no thought except that of true thusness. Thusness does not move,
but its motion and function are inexhaustible.
p. 42
Liberate yourself from concepts and see the truth with your own eyes. � It exists
HERE and NOW; it requires only one thing to see it: openness, freedom � the freedom
to be open and not tethered by any ideas, concepts, etc. ... When our mind is
tranquil, there will be an occasional pause to its feverish activities, there will
be a let-go, and it is only then in the interval between two thoughts that a flash
of UNDERSTANDING � understanding, which is not thought � can take place.
p. 43
Balance your thoughts with action. � If you spend too much time thinking about a
thing, you'll never get it done.
p. 43
Part IV : On Achievement
Concepts vs. self-actualization. � Instead of dedicating your life to actualize a
concept of what you should be like, ACTUALIZE YOURSELF. The process of maturing
does not mean to become a captive of conceptualization. It is to come to the
realization of what lies in our innermost selves.
p. 44
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.
p. 45
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
p. 46
Part VIII : On Ultimate (Final) Principles
What you HABITUALLY THINK largely determines what you will ultimately become.
p. 120; This probably derives from a Rosicrucian proverb, "As you think, so shall
you become", which is itself probably derived from Proverbs 23:7 "As he thinketh in
his heart, so is he."
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.
p. 120
The change is from inner to outer. � We start by dissolving our attitude not by
altering outer conditions.
p. 120
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.
p. 120
Cease negative mental chattering. � If you think a thing is impossible, you'll make
it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.
p. 121
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to
aim at.
p. 121; this likely derives from the observation of Joseph Joubert: The goal is not
always meant to be reached, but to serve as a mark for our aim.
As translated by Katharine Lyttelton, in Joubert : A Selection from His Thoughts
(1899)
Don't fear failure. � Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it
is glorious even to fail.
p. 121
[edit]Misattributed
The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do
not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and
earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for
or against. The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease.
In "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" by Bruce Lee (1975, compiled and published
posthumously) and also in Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
(2000) edited by John Little, this is attributed to Lee, perhaps because it was
found in his notes, but it is also quoted in precisely this form, from what appear
to be translations of Taoist writings in The Religions of Man (1958) by Huston
Smith. It is actually from Xinxin Ming, by the Third Chinese Chan [Zen] Patriarch
Sengcan.
[edit]Quotes about Bruce Lee
If Bruce Lee wasn't the greatest martial artist of all time, then certainly he is
the number one candidate. ~ Joe Lewis
When I was having dinner with Chuck Norris I did ask him: "If you and Bruce would
be in a real fight to death, who would win?", and he said without thinking: "Bruce
of course. Nobody can beat him."
John Benn, in audio commentary on DVD of The Way of the Dragon (US title: Return of
the Dragon).
I wouldn't have put a dime on anyone to beat Bruce Lee in a real confrontation.
Bruce Lee was the best street fighter I ever saw, even to this very day, and not
just pound for pound � but against anyone in a real fight.
James Demile in a Temple of the Unknown interview (10 April 2001)
There's no doubt in my mind that if Bruce Lee had gone into pro boxing, he could
easily have ranked in the top three in the lightweight division or junior-
welterweight division.
Dan Inosanto, as quoted in "The Truth of Boxing : A Critical Look at Bruce Lee's
Hand Skills" by Bob Birchland in Black Belt Magazine (November 2007). pg. 93)
The slender, swift Bruce Lee was the Fred Astaire of martial arts, and many of the
fights that could be merely brutal come across as lightning-fast choreography.
Pauline Kael reviewing Enter the Dragon, from 5001 Nights at the Movies (1982)
I wanted to do in boxing what Bruce Lee was able to do in the martial arts. Lee was
an artist and, like him, I try to get beyond the fundamentals of my sport. I want
my fights to be seen as plays.
Sugar Ray Leonard, as quoted at Bruce Lee Links
In a dictionary, you say "greatest", you say "Bruce Lee", that�s the way it is. He
is second to no one.
Sugar Ray Leonard (from minute 3.46 to 3.57)
When Bruce Lee kicked, you don't shut your eyes. Because when you shut your eyes,
you cannot see Bruce Lee kick it�s so fast! Human beings cannot move like cartoon
[sound effects], that�s the fastest you can be. Even Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson,
their punches are fast, but you still can see [them].
Jackie Chan [1]
If Bruce Lee wasn't the greatest martial artist of all time, then certainly he is
the number one candidate.
Joe Lewis, quoted at Realfighting.com Temple of the Unknown
I considered him by far the greatest. And for those who don�t considering him the
greatest, at least he is the top candidate for being actually the greatest.
Joe Lewis, quoted in "Death by Misadventure" (from minute 5.54 to 6.04)
I remember many times my father (Ed Parker) talking about, pound for pound, Lee was
the best martial artist, he�d ever seen.
Ed Parker Jr., quoted in the documentary "Bruce Lee: Curse of the Dragon", 1993
Warner Bros. Tom Kuhn Fred Weintraub
Bruce Lee is my Idol. I need to learn some techniques of Bruce Lee, especially the
quickness of his hands and legs.
Manny Pacquiao [2]
It's a little tough for the traditional martial artists to swallow, because one
system doesn't do it. You've got to cross-train in many different systems.
Actually, the father of mixed martial arts, if you will, was Bruce Lee. If you look
at the way Bruce Lee trained, the way he fought, and many of the things he wrote,
he said the perfect style was no style. You take a little something from
everything. You take the good things from every different discipline, use what
works, and you throw the rest away.
Dana White in Fight Times magazine
His martial art skills made Lee arguably the greatest martial artist of his time �
or any other.
Bill Duff in the martial arts / fight sport documentary Human Weapon by The History
Channel, episode 10: "China and Kung Fu", aired November 2, 2007. [3]
Bruce Lee quotes (showing 1-50 of 64)

�I�m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you�re not in this world
to live up to mine.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: expectations , individuality , peer-pressure , wisdom 310 people liked it
like
�Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one�
? Bruce Lee
181 people liked it like
�Be happy, but never satisfied.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: life 132 people liked it like
�Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to
the object, and you shall find a way around 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.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: bruce-lee , martial-arts , philosophy , politics 124 people liked it like
�Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.�
? Bruce Lee
�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.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: fierce , forever-love , love , undying-love 93 people liked it like
�Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your
own.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: advice , bruce-lee , inspirational 91 people liked it like
�The doubters siad,
"Man can not fly,"
The doers aid,
"Maybe, but we'll try,"
And finally soared
In the morning glow
While non-believers
Watched from below.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: bruce-lee , inspirational 90 people liked it like
�I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had
practiced one kick 10,000 times.�
? Bruce Lee
�A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a
wise answer.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: awesome 73 people liked it like
�To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: bruce-lee 72 people liked it like
�The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.�
? Bruce Lee
�If you always put limits 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.�
? Bruce Lee
�If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: productivity 53 people liked it like
�Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.�
? Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do
tags: bruce-lee , fighting , jeet-kune-do , martial-arts 52 people liked it like
�Not being tense but ready.
Not thinking but not dreaming.
Not being set but flexible.
Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.
It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may
come.�
tags: zen 51 people liked it like
�The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the engagement; you ought not to
be thinking of whether it ends in victory or defeat. Let nature take its course,
and your tools will strike at the right moment.�
? Bruce Lee
�A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to
aim at.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: goals , vision 47 people liked it like
�It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: inspirational , motivation , priorities , simplicity , wisdom 46 people liked
it like
�Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.�
? Bruce Lee
�Don't fear failure. � Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it
is glorious even to fail.�
? Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
tags: fear , motivational 42 people liked it like
�A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: bruce , fool , lee , temper 39 people liked it like
�Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent
graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you
fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life! Do not be
concerned with escaping safely- lay your life before him!!�
? Bruce Lee
�Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow
survives by bending with the wind.�
? Bruce Lee
�Time means a lot to me because you see I am also a learner and am often lost in
the joy of forever developing.�
? Bruce Lee
�Be self aware, rather than a repetitious robot�
? Bruce Lee
�Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: bruce-lee , determined , inspiritional , spiritual 32 people liked it like
�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.�
? Bruce Lee
�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.�
? Bruce Lee
�If you don't want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.�
? Bruce Lee
�Now I see that I will never find the light
Unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel,
Consuming myself.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: the-silent-flute 27 people liked it like
�Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the
soul.�
? Bruce Lee
�Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to
kick.�
? Bruce Lee
�A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence. �
? Bruce Lee
�The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits.�
? Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do: Bruce Lee's Commentaries on the Martial Way
tags: motivational , thinking 24 people liked it like
�The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and
conceptualized and squeezed into a patter of systems.�
tags: inspirational 24 people liked it like
�You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it
becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you
pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash.
Become like water my friend.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: adaptation , life 22 people liked it like
�The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness
in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.�
? Bruce Lee
�Boards don't hit back.�
? Bruce Lee
�Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as a reality-in your own mind.�
? Bruce Lee
�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.�
? Bruce Lee
�For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know
yourself takes a lifetime.�
tags: bruce-lee 19 people liked it like
�Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like
water.�
? Bruce Lee
tags: inspirational 18 people liked it like
�If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.�
? Bruce Lee
�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.�
? Bruce Lee
�Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created
another pattern and trapped yourself there.�
tags: bruce , lee , pattern , reaction 13 people liked it like
�Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation.�
�If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo. �
? Bruce Lee
�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.�
? Bruce Lee
�You cannot force the Now. � But can you neither condemn nor justify and yet be
extraordinarily alive as you walk on? You can never invite the wind, but you must
leave the window open.
Sourced, Striking Thoughts (2000)
p. 13�

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Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion.

If one loves, one need not have an ideology of love.

There is no such thing as maturity. There is instead an ever-evolving process of

eet Kune Do (1997)

Emptiness the starting point.

We are always in a process of becoming and NOTHING is fixed.

What IS is more important than WHAT SHOULD BE.

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

Bruce Lee quotes (showing 1-50 of 64)

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