Bruce Lee Quotes

“'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’.”

“A fight is not won by one punch or kick. Either learn to endure or hire a bodyguard.”

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

“A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.”

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

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

“Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.”

“After all, all knowledge simply means self-knowledge.”

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

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

“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.”

“As you think, so shall you become.”

“Balance your thoughts with action.”

“Be happy, but never satisfied.”

“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.”

“Be self aware, rather than a repetitious robot.”

“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.”

“Boards don’t hit back.”

“But neither can you 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.”

“Cease negative mental chattering. If you think a thing is impossible, you’ll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“Do not correct a fool or he will hate you. Correct a wise man, and he will appreciate you.”

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

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

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

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