Bruce Lee Quotations | Page 5

To become a champion requires a good mental attitude toward preparation. You have to accept the most tedious task with pleasure.

The core of understanding lies in the individual mind, and until that is touched everything is uncertain and superficial. Truth cannot be perceived until we come to fully understand our potential and ourselves. After all, knowledge in the martial arts ultimately means self-knowledge.

One will never get any more than he thinks he can get. YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES. Look back and see your progress - damn the torpedo, full speed ahead!

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

Since life is an ever evolving process, one should flow in this process and discover how to actualize and expand oneself.

If people say Jeet Kune Do is different from this or from that, then let the name of Jeet Kune Do be wiped out, for that is what it is, just a name. Please don't fuss over 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.

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.

For those who kept saying it can't be done: Never are the victories or the honors won. But, rather, By the believing, doing kind, While the doubters watched From Far Behind.

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 human beings that are structually different from us, there can be no different style of fighting.

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

There are lots of guys around the world that are lazy. They have big fat guts. They talk about chi power and things they can do, but don't believe it.

The measure of the moral worth of a man is his happiness. The better the man, the more happiness. Happiness is the synonym of well-being

The principle of martial arts is not a thing that can be learned, like a science, by fact-finding and instruction in facts. It has to grow spontaneously, like a flower, in a mind free from emotions and desires.

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.

All types of knowledge, ultimately mean self knowledge.

Willing is not enough, one must apply.

The founder of any branch must be more ingenious than the common man. However, if his achievement is not carried on by disciples of the same ingenuity, then things will only become formalized and get stuck in a cul-de-sac; whereby breakthrough and progress will be almost impossible.

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.

I did what I came here 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.

Dedication, absolute dedication, is what keeps one ahead!

Out of chaos, find simplicity, From discord, find harmony.

The meaning of life is that it is to be lived.

Understanding comes about through feeling, from moment to moment in the mirror of relationship.

Truth comes when your mind and heart are purged of all sense of striving and you are no longer trying to become somebody; it is there when the mind is very quiet, listening timelessly to everything.

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

With every adversity comes a blessing because a shock acts as a reminder to oneself that we must not get stale in routine.

'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'.

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.

Practice all movements slow and fast, soft and hard; the effectiveness of Jeet Kune-Do depends on split-second timing and reflexive action, which can be achieved only through repetitious practice.

Before me now there is only one real fact -- Death. The truth I have been seeking -- this truth is Death. Yet Death is also a seeker. Forever seeking me. So -- we have met at last. And I am prepared. I am at peace. Because I will conquer death with death.

Success only means doing something sincerely and wholeheartedly. I think life is a process. Through the ages, the end of heroes is the same as ordinary men. They all died and gradually faded away in the memory of man. But when we are still alive, we have to understand ourselves, discover ourselves and express ourselves. In this way, we can progress, but we may not be successful.

Do not be tense, just be ready, not thinking but not dreaming, not being set but being flexible.

To tolerate is to insult.

Circumstances hell! I make circumstances!

There are too many stars and too few actors.

A self-willed man has no other aim than his own growth.

The future looks extremely bright indeed, with lots of possibilities ahead -- big possibilities. Like the song says, We've just begun.

It is true that the mental aspect of kung-fu is the desired end; however, to achieve this end, technical skill must come first.

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 timeless moment. - The "moment" has no yesterday or tomorrow. It is not the result of thought and therefore has no time.

Don’t indulge in any unnecessary, sophisticated moves

Know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience.

Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-consciousn ess.

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

Truth cannot be structured or confined.

Art lives where absolute freedom is because when it is not, there can be no creativity.

Art requires imagination. It requires Creativity. Creativity requires experience and experience comes from your life. And your life is expressed in your art.

Let yourself go with dis-ease, be with it, and keep it company. This is the way to be rid of it.

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-knowled

...good technique includes quick changes, great variety and speed. It may be a system of reversals much like a concept of God and the Devil. In the speed of events, which one is really in charge?...to put the heart of martial arts inyour own heart and have it be a part of you means total comprehension and the use of a free style. When you have that you will know that there are no limits.

Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart.

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.

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.

Success means doing something sincerely and wholeheartedly.

Boards don't hit back.

The more complicated and restricted the method, the less opportunity for expression of one's original sense of freedom.

The primary Reality is not what I think, but that I live, for those also live who do not think.

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.

Faith makes it possible to achieve that which man's mind can conceive and believe.

You need emotional content....

I don't believe in different ways of fighting now. I mean, unless human beings have 3 arms and 3 legs, then we will have a different way of fighting. But basically we all have two arms and two legs so that is why I believe there should be only one way of fighting and that is no way.

The happiness that is derived from excitement is like a brilliant fire- soon it will go out.

As long as we separate this oneness into two we won't achieve realization.

What Is, is more important than What Should Be.

I have always been a martial artist by choice, an actor by profession, but above all, am actualising myself to be an artist of life.

Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strange confidence.

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.

Go toward self-actualization rather than self-image actualization... Search within... for honest self- expression.

Every morning like a scholar at his first class I prepare a blank mind for the day to write upon.

The abdominal and waist region coordinate all parts of the body and act as the center or generator. Therefore, you can promote the ability to control the body's action and master your will more easily.

Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.

For something that is static, fixed, dead, there can be a way or a definite path; but not for anything that is moving and living.

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

Finally, a Jeet Kune Do man who says Jeet Kune Do is exclusively Jeet Kune Do is simply not with it. He is still hung up on his self-closing resistance, in this case anchored down to reactionary pattern, and naturally is still bound by another modified pattern and can move within its limits. He has not digested the simple fact that truth exists outside all molds; pattern and awareness is never exclusive. Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back.

The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus and a chair that's not obtained from Craigslist that keeps poking into his back.

It is not what happens that is success or failure, but what it does to the heart of man.

Genius: The capacity to see and to express what is simple, simply!

The Western approach to reality is mostly through theory, and theory begins by denying reality -- to talk about reality, to go around reality, to catch anything that attracts our sense-intellect and abstract it away from reality itself. Thus philosophy begins by saying that the outside world is not a basic fact, that its existence can be doubted and that every proposition in which the reality of the outside world is affirmed is not an evident proposition but one that needs to be divided, dissected and analyzed. It is to stand consciously aside and try to square a circle.

Fluidity is the way to an empty mind. You must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying.

What can you take from me which is not already yours?

After all, all knowledge simply means self-knowledge.

Take what's useful, discard what is not.

...The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity ... the ability to express the utmost with the minimum. It is the halfway cultivation that leads to ornamentation...

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.

All knowledge leads to self-knowledge.

The three most difficult things in life are: 1. To keep a secret. 2. To forget an injury. 3. To make good use of leisure.

Bring the mind to a sharp focus and make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere.

Knowledge earns you power, character earns you respect.

Taoist philosophy is essentially monistic. Matter and energy, Yang and Yin, heaven and earth, are conceived of as essentially one or as two coexistent poles of one indivisible whole.

If one loves, one need not have an ideology of love.

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water.

The success of an assailant's attack depends on surprise, and if you're sufficiently alert to prevent a surprise, your counterattack is already halfway to being successful.

Learn the principle, abide by the principle, and dissolve the principle. In short, enter a mold without being caged in it. Obey the principle without being bound by it. Learn, master, and achieve.

Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception.

Transform it, decorate it, let it become a new Bruce Lee museum,

Your inspiration continues to guide us toward our personal liberation.

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

The void is that which stands right in the middle of 'this' and 'that'. The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite - there is nothing which it excludes or opposses. It is living void, because all forms come out of it and whosoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all things.

A good martial artist does not become tense but ready. Not thinking yet not dreaming, ready for whatever may come. A martial artist has to take responsibility for himself and face the consequences of his own doing. To have no technique, there is no opponent, because the word 'I' does not exist. When the opponent expands I contract and when he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, 'I' do not hit, 'It' hits all by itself.