Lee Jun-fan, known professionally as Bruce Lee, was a Hong Kong-American actor, director, martial artist, martial arts instructor, and philosopher. He lived a short but a meaningful life. He shaped the world around him in powerful and constructive ways. Profound Bruce Lee quotes will inspire you to be yourself, do your best and live a remarkable life.
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Best Bruce Lee Quotes
If you truly love life, don’t waste time because time is what life is made of. 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
Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. 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
In the middle of chaos lies opportunity. Bruce Lee
Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own. Bruce Lee
Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them. 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
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Bruce Lee
A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. Bruce Lee
Real living is living for others. Bruce Lee
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. Bruce Lee
It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential. Bruce Lee
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. Bruce Lee
The successful warrior is the average man, with laser like focus. Bruce Lee
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. Bruce Lee
Remember no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged. Bruce Lee
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at. Bruce Lee
As you think, so shall you become. 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
Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail. Bruce Lee
It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials. Bruce Lee
I wish neither to possess nor to be possessed. I no longer covet paradise. More important, I no longer fear hell. Bruce Lee
The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering. Bruce Lee
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
Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successfull personality and duplicate it. Bruce Lee
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. Bruce Lee
Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it. 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
A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough. Bruce Lee
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. Bruce Lee
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. Bruce lee
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 in your own heart and have it be a part of you means total comprehension and the use of a freestyle. When you have that you will know that there are no limits. Bruce Lee
A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence. Bruce Lee
For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime. Bruce Lee
Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality. Bruce Lee
Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do. Bruce Lee
For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime. Bruce Lee
In order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature. 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
Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it. Bruce Lee
Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there. Bruce Lee
Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence. Bruce Lee
Obey the principles without being bound by them. 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
To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Bruce Lee
Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. Bruce Lee
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
A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough. Bruce Lee
It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men. Bruce Lee
A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. Bruce Lee
Preparation for tomorrow is hard work today. Bruce Lee
If you always put limit 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. Bruce Lee
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. Bruce Lee
If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of. 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
Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it. Bruce Lee
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. Bruce Lee
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect. Bruce Lee
Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo. Bruce Lee
A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. Bruce Lee
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against. Bruce Lee
Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them. Bruce Lee
If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow you are not understanding yourself. Bruce Lee
The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering. Bruce Lee
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. 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
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. Bruce Lee
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at. Bruce Lee
Only the self sufficient stand alone most people follow the crowd and imitate. Bruce Lee
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities. Bruce Lee
Knowledge earns you power, character earns you respect. Bruce Lee
All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns. 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
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against. Bruce Lee
All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns. Bruce Lee
A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough. Bruce Lee
Remember no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged. Bruce Lee
To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Bruce Lee
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! Bruce Lee
Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system. Bruce Lee
The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action. Bruce Lee
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. Bruce Lee
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. Bruce Lee
Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. Bruce Lee
