Bruce Lee Quotes

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

Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one

Are you out of your goddamn mind? You think we can take on two hundred soldiers? I know I am an extremely attractive man, J, but I am not Bruce Lee.” “Who’s Bruce Lee?” “Who’s Bruce Lee?” Kenji asks, horrified. “Oh my God. We can’t even be friends anymore.” “Why? Was he a friend of yours?” “You know what,” he says, “just stop. Just—I can’t even talk to you right now.

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.

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.

Don't fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.

Be happy, but never satisfied.

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.

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.

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

If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.

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.

To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.

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.

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.

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

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.

She’s like Bruce Lee, the Hulk and Neo from The Matrix all rolled in to one.

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

If you don't want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.

Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.

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

A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.

For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime.

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.

Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.

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.

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.

If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.

As you think, so shall you become.

Now I see that I will never find the light Unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, Consuming myself.

Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation.

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

Showing off is the fool's idea of glory.

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!!

The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

‎The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.

Be self aware, rather than a repetitious robot

Time means a lot to me because you see I am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing.

Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as a reality-in your own mind.

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

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.

The More we value things, the less we value ourselves

Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light.

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

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.

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.

All knowledge leads to self-knowledge.

It's like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.

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.

The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.

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.

Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.

Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own

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.

Boards don't hit back.

Real living is living for others.

The idea is that flowing water never goes stale, so just keep on flowing.

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

If you think a thing is impossible,you'll only make it impossible.

Obey the principles without being bound by them.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

Who's Bruce Lee?" Kenji asks, horrified. "Oh my God. We can't even be friends anymore.

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.

If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.

In Buddhism, there is no place for using effort. 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.

It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.

Don't think. FEEL. It's like a finger pointing at the moon. Do not concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all of the heavenly glory.

Preparation for tomorrow is hard work today.

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.

Bring the mind into sharp focus and make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere. The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes and even ordinary thought itself.

Effort within the mind further limits the mind, because effort implies struggle towards a goal and when you have a goal, a purpose, an end in view, you have placed a limit on the mind.

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.

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

The possession of anything begins in the mind.

Relationship is understanding. It is a process of self-revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself -- to be is to be related.

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

Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.

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

I am not afraid of a person who knows 10000 kicks. But I am afraid of a person who knows one kick but practices it for 10000 times.

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.

In order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.

Only the self-sufficient stand alone - most people follow the crowd and imitate.

Knowledge earns you power, character earns you respect.

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

The word "superstar" is an ilusion

...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. 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.

Using no way as way. Having no limitation as your only limitation.

Remember no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged.

water is fearless,you put water into a cup,it becomes the cup ,you put water into a teapot it becomes the teapot,water can flow drip ,creap,or crash!

Linda and I aren't one and one. We are two halves that make a whole -- two halves fitted together are more efficient than either half would ever be alone!

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.

I'm moving and not moving at all. I'm like the moon underneath the waves that ever go on rolling and rocking. It is not, "I am doing this," but rather, an inner realization that "this is happening through me," or "it is doing this for me." The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.

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.

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.

...we have more faith in what we imitate than in what we originate. We cannot derive a sense of absolute certitude from anything which has its roots in us. The most poignant sense of insecurity comes from standing alone and we are not alone when we imitate. It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.