Bruce Lee Quotes

Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.

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.

I personally do not believe in the word style. Why? Because, unless there are human beings with three arms and four legs, unless we have another group of beings on earth that are structurally different from us, there can be no different style of fighting. Why is that? Because we have two hands and two legs. ... because of styles, people are separated. They are not united together because styles become law.

The ideal is unnatural naturalness, or natural unnaturalness. I mean it is a combination of both. I mean here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony. Not if you have one to the extreme, you'll be very unscientific. If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man No longer a human being. It is a successful combination of both. That way it is a process of continuing growth.

Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.

When you fight, if it is a real fight, use every tool that you have, use your whole body. Use your fists, your legs, your fingers, your head if you have to, and hit them in every vulnerable spot, the balls, the eyes etc. to win.

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

Use karate, judo, aikido, or any style to build your counter-offensive. It will be interesting!

Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself - to be is to be related.

Having totality means being capable of following "what is," because "what is" is constantly moving and constantly changing. If one is anchored to a particular view, one will not be able to follow the swift movement of "what is.

A quality martial artist is always ready for any move, and trains oneself invincible.

I've come to understand that life is best lived, not conceptualized.

The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world, to state in aesthetic creation the deepest psychic and personal experiences of a human being. It is to enable those experiences to be intelligible and generally recognized within the total framework of an ideal world.

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.

Endurance is lost rapidly if one ceases to work at its maximum.

Meditation means to be free from all phenomena and calmness means to be internally unperturbed. There will be calmness when one is free from external objects and is not perturbed.

Nothingness cannot be defined; the softest thing cannot be snapped.

I'm a philosophy major. That means I can think deep thoughts about being unemployed.

As you think, you shall become

If I tell you I'm good, probably you will say I'm boasting. But if I tell you I'm not good, you'll know I'm lying.

Learning is never cumulative, it is a movement of knowing which has no beginning and no end.

The point is the doing of them rather than the accomplishments . There is no actor but the action; there is no experiencer but the experience.

Self-knowledge is the basis of jeet kune do because it is effective not only for the individual's martial art but also for his life as a human being.

Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul.

Too much horsing around with unrealistic stances and classic forms and rituals is just too artificial and mechanical, and doesn't really prepare the student for actual combat. A guy could get clobbered while getting into this classical mess. Classical methods like these, which I consider a form of paralysis, only solidify and constrain what was once fluid. Their practitioners are merely blindly rehearsing routines and stunts that will lead nowhere.

Boards don't hit back.

Learning is a constant process of discovery - a process without end.

When we suddenly awake to the realization that there is no barrier, and never has been, one realizes that one is all things mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, sun, moon, stars, universe are all oneself. There is no longer a division or barrier between myself and others, no longer any feeling of alienation or fear there is nothing apart from oneself and therefore nothing to fear. Realizing this results in true compassion. Other people and things are not seen as apart from oneself but, on the contrary, as one's own body.

The best fighter is not a Boxer, Karate or Judo man. The best fighter is someone who can adapt on any style. He kicks too good for a Boxer, throws too good for a Karate man, and punches too good for a Judo man.

We shall find the answer when we examine the problem, the problem is never apart from the answer, the problem IS the answer, understanding the problem dissolves the problem.

Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I've understood the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. The height of cultivation is really nothing special. It is merely simplicity; the ability to express the utmost with the minimum.

I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine.

All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.

Forget about winning and losing, forget about pride and pain

To live is to express oneself freely

If mere mechanical efficiency can make everyone a martial artist, then all is well. Unfortunately, combat, like freedom, is something that can not be preconceived.

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.

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.

I do not fear the man who practices 1,000 kicks one time each. I fear the man who practices 1 kick 1,000 times.

Remember, you are expressing the techniques and not doing the techniques.

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.

Ideas are the beginning of all achievement.

Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it.

Art is the way to the absolute and to the essence of human life.

To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery.

After all, all knowledge simply means self-knowledge.

We are told that talent creates opportunity, yet it is desire that creates talent.

Everyone wants to learn how to win, but no one wants to learn how to accept defeat.