Bruce Lee Quotes

The past is no more; the future not yet. Nothing exists except the here and now. Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at our hands.

In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup.

Real living is living for others.

If you knew you had to fight for your life tomorrow, would you change your training today?

Get maximum effect from minimum effort.

Showing off is the fool's idea of glory.

Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.

Every man today is the result of his thoughts yesterday.

The knowledge and skills you have achieved are meant to be forgotten so you can float comfortably in emptiness, without obstruction.

You need emotional content.

To me, ultimately, martial arts means honestly expressing yourself.

When you feel pain, you know that you are still alive.

Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing.

Don’t indulge in any unnecessary, sophisticated moves

Let nature take its course and your tools will strike at the right moment.

The deluded mind is the mind affectively burdened by intellect. Thus, it cannot move without stopping and reflecting on itself. This obstructs its native fluidity.

Martial arts, like any art, is an unrestricted athletic expression of an individual soul.

All types of knowledge ultimately lead to self-knowledge. So, therefore, these people are asking me to teach them, not so much how to defend themselves or how to do somebody in. Rather, they want to learn to express themselves through some movement, be it anger, be it determination or whatever. So, in other words, they're paying me to show them, in combative form, the art of expressing the human body.

To tell the truth, I could beat anybody in the world.

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.

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.

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there.

It's not what you give, it's the way you give it.

Unfortunately, now in boxing people are only allowed to punch. In Judo, people are only allowed to throw. I do not despise these kinds of martial arts. What I mean is, we now find rigid forms which create differences among clans, and the world of martial art is shattered as a result.

Reality is apparent when one ceases to compare.

You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup.

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.

Satori - in the awakening from a dream. Awakening and self-realization and seeing into one's own being - these are synonymous.

There's so much myth and baloney. Like a 80-year-old man able to manhandle a 300-pounder with his little finger. Ridiculous. Or this matter of breaking bricks and boards wth the edge of your hand. Now I ask you, did you ever see a brick or a board pick a fight with anybody?

I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.

Low aim, not failure, is the crime.

While it may come as a profound surprise to those of us who are in the throes of an emotional or life crisis, the fact remains that the answer to virtually all of our problems resides within us already. It exist in the form of a vast reservoir of free-flowing energy that, when channeled to our muscles, can give us great strength and, when channeled to our brain, can give us great insight and understanding.

To develop the creative attitude, analyze and focus on the wanted SOLUTION; seek out and fill your mind with the FACTS; write down ideas, both sensible and seemingly wild; let the facts and ideas simmer in your mind; evaluate, recheck, settle on the creative ideas.

If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow -- you are not understanding yourself.

Running water never grows stale.

Remember my friend to enjoy your planning as well as your accomplishment, for life is too short for negative energy.

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 man that people are different.

Success is not in reaching the destination, but in making the journey.

Open yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the total openness of the living moment.

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. It is living void, because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all beings.

Without frustration you will not discover that you might be able to do something on your own. We grow through conflict.

Let the spirit out - Discard all thoughts of reward, all hopes of praise and fears of blame, all awareness of one's bodily self. And, finally closing the avenues of sense perception, let the spirit out, as it will.

A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.

The unconditioned mind intuits truth.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

As long as I can remember I feel I have had this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision. It is all these combined. My brain becomes magnetized with this dominating force which I hold in my hand.

People try to hold onto the sameness. This holding onto prevents growth.