Bruce Lee, born Lee Jun-fan, was a Hong Kong and American martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that is often credited with paving the way for modern mixed martial arts (MMA). Lee is considered by critics, media, and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century, who bridged the gap between East and West.
He is credited with promoting Hong Kong action cinema and helping to change the way Asians were presented in American films. In the 1970s, his Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the Hong Kong martial arts films to a new level of popularity and acclaim, sparking a surge of Western interest in Chinese martial arts. The direction and tone of his films dramatically influenced and changed martial arts and martial arts films worldwide.
He is noted for his roles in five feature-length Hong Kong martial arts films in the early 1970s. Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, based upon his portrayal of Chinese nationalism in his films, and among Asian Americans for defying stereotypes associated with the emasculated Asian male.
Having initially learnt Wing Chun, tai chi, boxing, and street fighting, he combined them with other influences from various sources into the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy, which he dubbed Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist). Since his death, Lee has continued to be a prominent influence on modern combat sports, including judo, karate, mixed martial arts, and boxing, as well as modern popular culture, including film, television, comics, animation and video games.
Some of best quotes from Bruce Lee are listed below.
- “A fight is not won by one punch or kick. Either learn to endure or hire a bodyguard.” – Bruce Lee
- “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” – Bruce Lee
- “A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.” – Bruce Lee
- “A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.” – Bruce Lee
- “A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.” – Bruce Lee
- “Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” – Bruce Lee
- “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” – Bruce Lee
- “Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul.
- “Art is the way to the absolute and to the essence of human life. 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.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “As you think, so shall you become.” – Bruce Lee
- “Be happy, but never satisfied.” – Bruce Lee
- “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
- “Be self aware, rather than a repetitious robot.” – Bruce Lee
- “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 patter and takes the pattern to be the real thing.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.” – Bruce Lee
- “Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as a reality-in your own mind.” – Bruce Lee
- “Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence.” – Bruce Lee
- “Do not be tense, just be ready, not thinking but not dreaming, not being set but being flexible. It is being “wholly” and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.” – Bruce Lee
- “Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” – 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
- “Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.” – Bruce Lee
- “Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.” – 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
- “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
- “Fear comes from uncertainty; we can eliminate the fear within us when we know ourselves better.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “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
- “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
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.” – Bruce Lee
- “If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “If you think a thing is impossible, you’ll only make it impossible.” – Bruce Lee
- “If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you.” – Bruce Lee
- “In order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.” – Bruce Lee
- “In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup.” – Bruce Lee
- “In the middle of chaos lies opportunity.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.” – Bruce Lee
- “It’s not what you give, it’s the way you give it.” – Bruce Lee
- “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.” – Bruce Lee
- “Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier.” – Bruce Lee
- “Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – 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
- “Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee
- “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” – Bruce Lee
- “Obey the principles without being bound by them.” – Bruce Lee
- “Only the self-sufficient stand alone – most people follow the crowd and imitate.” – Bruce Lee
- “Preparation for tomorrow is hard work today.” – Bruce Lee
- “Real living is living for others.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – 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
- “Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.” – Bruce Lee
- “The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” – Bruce Lee
- “The knowledge and skills you have achieved are meant to be forgotten so you can float comfortably in emptiness, without obstruction.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “The More we value things, the less we value ourselves.” – Bruce Lee
- “The possession of anything begins in the mind.” – Bruce Lee
- “The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits.” – Bruce Lee
- “The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.” – Bruce Lee
- “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – Bruce Lee
- “There is “what is” only when there is no comparing and to live with “what is” is to be peaceful.” – Bruce Lee
- “Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light.” – 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
- “To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.” – Bruce Lee
- “To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.” – 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
- “Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.” – Bruce Lee
- “Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation.” – Bruce Lee
- “What you habitually think largely determines what you will ultimately become.” – Bruce Lee
- “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.” – 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.” – Bruce Lee
Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.