Founder of Jeet Kune Do hybrid martial arts philosophy, an actor, director, philosopher, and an absolute icon of the 20th century, Lee Jun-fan, a.k.a. Bruce Lee, was truly a legendary man. Because of his work, Bruce Lee is credited to have bridged the gap between the West and the East and introduced the ideas of Hong Kong martial art movies, much to our delight, to Hollywood. Although Lee’s death was horribly untimely at the age of 32 in 1973, he still left a vast legacy to pore over. Besides being a martial arts professional, he was also a philosopher, and that gave us a myriad of inspiring quotes to remember him by and to base our beliefs on. So, here we are with an article full of Bruce Lee quotes, and trust us, each of them is as inspiring and as moving as anything else you’ll read today.
Being a master of martial arts allowed Bruce Lee to spread his word and his teachings to some of the most famous people of the time. His roster of disciples consisted of the controversial yet ingenious director Roman Polanski and his ill-fated wife Sharon Tate, who has recently been reborn in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood movie. Of course, Quentin didn’t leave out the chance to include the martial arts master in his movie, too! However, if this pair of Hollywood celebrities aren’t that impressive to you, you’d be amazed to know that Chuck Norris was also one of Bruce Lee’s pupils. Yup, THE Chuck Norris. Well, and in his training, Bruce Lee didn’t spare any wise words, which, of course, settled down nicely into many books and found their way into our article.
So, prepare yourself for some quality inspiring quotes and moving phrases - they are just a karate chop down below. Once you are there, be sure to give your vote for the famous quote you’d like to see on the top of this list, and after all that is well and done - share this article with your friends.
This post may include affiliate links.
"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."
"I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine."
"Loneliness is only an opportunity to cut adrift and find yourself. In solitude you are least alone. Make good use of it."
"Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you. I'll not willingly offend, nor be easily offended."
"A teacher is never a giver of truth; he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself."
"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."
"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."
"Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail."
"The less confident we are in ourselves, the less we are in touch with ourselves and the world, the more we want to control."
"Don't speak negatively about yourself, even as a joke. Your body doesn't know the difference. Words are energy and they cast spells, that's why it's called spelling. Change the way you speak about yourself, and you can change your life."
"It doesn't matter you were born as legend, but what does matter is legendary end. Think about it."
"Life is something for which there is no answer; it must be understood from moment to moment."
"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."
"For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime."
"Self-knowledge involves relationship. To know oneself is to study one self in action with another person."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"It's like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory."
"‘What is’ is more important than ‘what should be.’ Too many people are looking at ‘what is’ from a position of thinking ‘what should be.’"
"Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence."
"Obviously, if your kick does not commence, his punch will land first and your defense is useless."
"Do not correct a fool or he will hate you, correct a wise man and he will appreciate you."
"Even though I, Bruce Lee, may die someday without fulfilling all of my ambitions, I feel no sorrow. I did what I wanted to do. What I've done, I've done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can't expect much more from life."
"Education: to discover but not merely to imitate. Learning techniques without inward experiencing can only lead to superficiality."
"If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you."
"Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water, and when you're tired, go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand."
"Practice makes perfect. After a long time of practicing, our work will become natural, skillfull, swift and steady."
"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer."
"If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life."
"All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns."
"I am happy, because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies."
"I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest."
"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."
"The athlete who is building muscles through weight training should be very sure to work adequately on speed and flexibility at the same time."
"If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life."
"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."
"Do not be tense, just be ready, not thinking but not dreaming, not being set but being flexible."
"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."
"But neither can you condemn nor justify and yet be extraordinarily alive as you walk on."
"Learning is never cumulative, it is a movement of knowing which has no beginning and no end."
"The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action."
"It is not a shame to be knocked down by other people. The important thing is to ask when you’re being knocked down, ‘Why am I being knocked down?’ If a person can reflect in this way, then there is hope for this person."
"Art is the expression of the self; the more complicated and restrictive a method is, the lesser the opportunity for expression of one’s original sense of freedom."
"Relaxation is a physical state, but it is controlled by the mental state. It is acquired by the conscious effort to control the thought as well as the action pattern. It takes perception, practice and willingness to train the mind into new habits of thinking and the body into new habits of action."
"Life is a process, not a goal; a means but not an end; a constant movement rather than an established pattern."
"Let the spiritual grow up through the common. Live content with small means; seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion. Be worthy, not respectable, wealthy, not rich; study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common."
"Pliability is life; rigidity is death, whether one speaks of man’s body, his mind, or his spirit."
"Honesty and love. Frankness and truthfulness to myself and to the one I love. Truthful between two as one. You are part of my life, no pride, vanity, or anger involved."
"As the water manifests the brightness of the moon, the moon manifests the clarity of the water."
"Concentration is a form of exclusion, and where there is exclusion, there is a thinker who excludes."
"Remembrance is the only paradise out of which we cannot be driven away. Pleasure is the flower that fades, remembrance is the lasting perfume. Remembrances last longer than present realities; I have preserved blossoms for many years, but never fruits."
"If you would not spill the wine, do not fill the glass too full. If you wish your blade to hold it’s edge, do not try to make it over-keen."
"Experiencing is believing. A fat belly cannot believe that such a thing as hunger exists."
"The enemy of development is this pain phobia - the unwillingness to do a tiny bit of suffering."
"Masters in all branches of art must first be masters in living, for the soul creates everything."
"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."
"Anger should be expressed. Any anger that is not coming out, flowing freely, will turn into sadism, power drive, stammering, and other means of torturing."
"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."
"Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system."
"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."
"Choose the positive. You have choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive."
"To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly."
"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."
"The knowledge and skills you have achieved are meant to be forgotten so you can float comfortably in emptiness, without obstruction."
"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.’"
"Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water."
"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!"
"The world is full of people who are determined to be somebody or to give trouble. They want to get ahead, to stand out. Such ambition has no use for a gung fu man, who rejects all forms of self-assertiveness and competition."
"Because one does not want to be disturbed, to be made uncertain, he establishes a pattern of conduct, of thought, a pattern of relationship to man etc. Then he becomes a slave to the pattern and takes the pattern to be the real thing."
"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."
"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."
"The good man wins a victory and then stops; he will not go on to acts of violent winning, he boasteth not, he will not triumph, he shows no arrogance. He wins because he cannot choose. After his victory he will not be overbearing."
"The two primary moral questions. There are two sorts of problems concerning moral issues: where does good or bad action derive from? What makes an action bad or good?"
"The difference between an expert and a novice fighter is that the expert makes use of each opportunity."
"Artistic skill, therefore, does not mean artistic perfection. It remains rather a continuing medium or reflection of some step in psychic development, the perfection of which is not to be found in shape and form, but must radiate from the human soul."
"Too much concentration belittles life. Concentration is a narrowing down of the mind - but we are concerned with the total process of living, and to concentrate exclusively on any particular aspect of life, belittles life."
"The martial arts are based upon understanding, hard work and a total comprehension of skills. Power training and the use of force are easy, but total comprehension of all of the skills of the martial arts is very difficult to achieve."
"Do not practice finely skilled movements after you are tired, for you will begin to substitute gross motions for finer ones and generalized efforts for specific ones. Remember, wrong movements tend to supervene and the athlete's progress is set back."
"Emotion can be the enemy, if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotions, because the body always follows the mind."
"To express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself — that, my friend, is very hard to do."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Time means a lot to me, because you see I am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing."
"The aim of art is not the one-sided promotion of spirit, soul and senses, but the opening of all human capacities – thought, feeling, will – to the life rhythm of the world of nature. So will the voiceless voice be heard and the self be brought into harmony with it."
"Independent inquiry is needed in your search for truth, not dependence on anyone else’s view or a mere book."
"With all the training thrown to the wind, with a mind perfectly unaware of its own working, with the self vanishing nowhere, anybody knows where, the art of Jeet Kune Do attains its perfection."
"You cannot clear muddied water with your hand. Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will become clear of itself. Who is there that can secure a state of absolute repose? But keep calm and let time go on, and the state of repose will gradually arrest."
"The whip of the arm is caused by turning the body away from the arm until the range of movement in the shoulder joint is completely used. Then, the arm must turn with the body. Executed quickly, this causes the arm to whip forward as if released from a bow."
"Some martial arts are very popular, real crowd pleasers, because they look good, have smooth techniques. They are like a wine that has been watered. A diluted wine is not a real wine, not a good wine, hardly the genuine article. Some martial arts don’t look so good, but you know that they have a kick, a tang, a genuine taste."
"Adversity causes the mind to think properly. In a time when everything goes well, my mind is pampered with enjoyment, possessiveness, etc. Only in times of adversity, privation, or mishap, does my mind function and think properly of my state. This close examination of self strengthens my mind and leads me to understand and be understood."
"Sideways force can be broken though by straight force. Straight force can be stopped by sideways force."
"The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes and even ordinary thought itself."
"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind."
"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."
"The second-hand artist blindly following his sensei or sifu accepts his pattern. As a result, his action is and, more importantly, his thinking become mechanical. His responses become automatic, according to set patterns, making him narrow and limited."
