Quotes

Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.

Simplicity is the last step of art.

A teacher is never a giver of truth - he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst.

When an opportunity in a fight presents itself, "I" don't hit, "it" hits all by itself.

Empty your mind. Become formless and shapeless like water. When water is poured into a cup, it becomes the cup. When water is poured into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Be water, my friend.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. If you want to understand the truth in martial arts, to see any opponent clearly, you must throw away the notion of styles or schools, prejudices, likes and dislikes, and so forth. Then, your mind will cease all conflict and come to rest. In this silence, you will see totally and freshly.

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.

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

Don't think, feel! It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.

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

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.

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 over into your work, into your mortality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you.

There's no challenge in breaking a board. Boards don't hit back.

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.

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.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Martial art is ultimately an athletic expression of the dynamic human body. More important yet, is the person who is expressing his own soul.

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.

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

The martial arts are ultimately self-knowledge. A punch or a kick is not to knock the hell out of the guy in front, but to knock the hell out of your ego, your fear, or your hang-ups.

I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine.

You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being. Because, I mean I don't want to sound like ask Confucius, sayyyyyy--(joking) but under the sky, under the heaven, man, there is but one family. It just so happens that people are different.

First of all, the word superstar really turns me off--and I'll tell you why. The word "star" man, it's an illusion. it's something what the public calls you. You should look upon oneself as an actor, man. I mean you would be very pleased if somebody said (punches his fist into his open hand) "man, you are a super actor!" it is much better than, you know, superstar.

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.

Ever since The Big Boss (1971) there seems to be a wave, a hot wave in fact, of finding "another Bruce Lee" among all types of people, particularly martial artists. Ranging from karate men, hapkido men, judo men, etcetera, etcetera. Forgetting about whether or not they possess the ability to act, just so long as they can halfway decent kick or punch and know a few tricks or gimmicks, the producers will make them a "star." Now, let's stop about here. Is it that simple to become a star? Well, I can assure you it's not that simple. Also, I can tell you that as more (of) Bruce Lee's films are shown, the audience will soon realize-not only in acting ability but in physical skill as well-they will see the difference. Of course, "It is only moviemaking," people will say, but certainly the audiences are not so insensitive as to not be able to see and judge for themselves.

Whatever we're not changing, that's what we're also choosing.