Quotes from Bruce Lee

It is futile to argue as to which single leaf, which design of branch, or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoming.

If you truly love life, don't waste time because time is what life is made of.

Like everyone else, you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose, to accept defeat, to learn to die is to be liberated from it. So when tomorrow comes, you must free your ambitious mind, and learn the art of dying.

Don't fear failure...in great attempts it is glorious even to fail.

To see a thing uncolored by one's own personal preferences and desires is to see it in its own pristine simplicity.

Masters in all branches of art must first be masters in living, for the soul creates everything.

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.

When the opponent expand, I contract. When he contracts, I expand. And, when there is an opportunity, I do not hit - it hits all by itself.

Put 'going the extra mile' to work as part of one's daily habit.

The attitude, "You can win if you want to badly enough," means that the will to win is constant. No amount of punishment, no amount of effort, no condition is too "tough" to take in order to win. Such an attitude can be developed only if winning is closely tied to the practitioner's ideals and dreams.

If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you.

Don't neglect life by worrying about Death. - I don't know what is the meaning of death, but I am not afraid to die - and I go on, non-stop, going forward [with life]. Even though, I, Bruce Lee, may die some day without fulfilling all of my ambitions, I will have no regrets. I did what I wanted to do and what I've done, I've done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can't expect much more from life.

The enemy of development is this pain phobia - the unwillingness to do a tiny bit of suffering.

To know, but to be as though not knowing, is the height of wisdom.

True mastery transcends any particular art. It stems from mastery of oneself--the ability, developed through self-discipline, to be calm, fully aware, and completely in tune with oneself and the surroundings. Then, and only then, can a person know himself.

Jeet Kune Do, you see, has no definite lines or boundaries — only those you make yourself.

My style? You can call it the art of fighting without fighting.

Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease, when the mind is obsessed with it.

Ricorda, amico mio, che non è tanto importante quello che ti succede, ma come reagisci agli eventi.

Learn the principles, abide by the principles, and then dissolve the principles.

Honestly expressing yourself...it is very difficult to do. I mean it is easy for me to put on a show and be cocky and be flooded with a cocky feeling and then feel like pretty cool...or I can make all kind of phony things, you see what I mean, blinded by it or I can show you some really fancy movement. But to express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself...now that, my friend, is very hard to do.

Where some people have a self, most people have a void, because they are too busy in wasting their vital creative energy to project themselves as this or that, dedicating their lives to actualizing a concept of what they should be like rather than actualizing their potentiality as a human being

Seriously, 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 plateus, 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.

The best fighter is not a Boxer, Karate or Judo man. The best fighter is someone who can adapt on any style. He kicks too good for a Boxer, throws too good for a Karate man, and punches too good for a Judo man.