Bruce Lee was an actor, martial arts exponent, and filmmaker. Many people consider him to have been one of the greatest and most influential martial arts experts of all time.
He was born in San Francisco, although his parents hailed from Hong Kong. His father was a famed opera singer, who appeared in numerous Chinese films. As a child living in Hong Kong, Bruce appeared in films from the time he was a baby, and by the age of 18 had acted in 20 films.
Lee, as a young man adopted a single-minded approach to whatever he was doing. At college, he took up boxing, taking it so seriously that he became a champion, despite only having trained for a short time. Lee’s first love, though, was martial arts, and he became well-known in Hong Kong for his fighting skill.
His martial arts expertise proved valuable to him when he moved to the US to pursue his education. He founded a martial arts school in Oakland and caught the attention of a TV producer named William Dozier. As a result, he appeared in the TV series The Green Hornet, episodes of Batman, and even one episode of Ironside.
Lee’s philosophy concerning martial arts influenced his entire approach to life. He firmly believed that life had to be lived to its full potential and that a person had to follow his beliefs. Lee believed that one has to live an active life and to achieve success by being single-minded and determined.
He was convinced that if you live a life that is worthy of being remembered, then you will enjoy immortality. Bruce Lee certainly achieved this, as he is still revered as the originator of what today is called Mixed Martial Arts. His films are still watched by millions of people worldwide, and his approach to life continues to motivate and inspire many.
As he gained experience, he saw traditional martial arts as too slow and devised his own version, called Jeet Kune Do. He appeared in more films, advised on several others, and also had parts in some TV series. With his career now established, Bruce Lee was becoming a household name, which was cemented when he starred in the film Enter the Dragon.
Bruce Lee has been named as one of the most influential people alive in the twentieth century. The Bruce Lee quotes listed below show that he was wise and practical, composed, and dedicated. His influence remains profound, even though he died prematurely in 1973 at the age of 32.
Lee believed that anyone yearning for success needs first to equip themselves with the tools they will need. Be prepared to learn the skills you will need, and then practice them until you have perfected them. He spoke against time-wasting, fear of failure, and allowing negativity to dominate your thoughts.
Bruce Lee Quotes
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
If you truly love life, don’t waste time because time is what life is made of.
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
Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.
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
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
Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.
Bruce Lee
It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.
Bruce Lee
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
Bruce Lee
Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence.
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
The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.
Bruce Lee
Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.
Bruce Lee
In order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.
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
A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.
Bruce Lee
Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.
Bruce Lee
The possession of anything begins in the mind.
Bruce Lee
In the middle of chaos lies opportunity.
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 wish neither to possess nor to be possessed. I no longer covet ‘paradise’. More important, I no longer fear ‘hell’.
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
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 successful personality and duplicate 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
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
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
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 don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.
Bruce Lee
Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.
Bruce Lee
A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.
Bruce Lee
Remember no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged.
Bruce Lee
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
Bruce Lee
As you think, so shall you become.
Bruce Lee
Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Bruce Lee
Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them.
Bruce Lee
Obey the principles without being bound by them.
Bruce Lee
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
Bruce Lee
It’s not what you give, it’s the way you give it.
Bruce Lee
Real living is living for others.
Bruce Lee
A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.
Bruce Lee
There is “what is” only when there is no comparing and to live with “what is” is to be peaceful.
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
Be happy, but never satisfied.
Bruce Lee
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.
Bruce Lee
To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.
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’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
Take no thought of who is right or wrong, or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee
Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.
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
The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.
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
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.
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
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
I wish neither to possess nor to be possessed. I no longer covet ‘paradise’. More important, I no longer fear ‘hell’. 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
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
Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul.
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
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
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
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
Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.
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
The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.
Bruce Lee
Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light.
Bruce Lee
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.
Bruce Lee
Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.
Bruce Lee
Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.
Bruce Lee
If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.
Bruce Lee
It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.
Bruce Lee
The more we value things, the less we value ourselves.
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
A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.
Bruce Lee
Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.
Bruce Lee
Boards don’t hit back.
Bruce Lee
Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.
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
Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.
Bruce Lee
Life, for Bruce Lee, was a gift that should never be squandered but should be lived to the full. When seeking success, you must be a person of action and believe in yourself. These Bruce Lee quotes will point you in the right direction.