“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
“Don't fear failure...in great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”
―
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
“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
“Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you. I'll not willingly offend, nor be easily offended.”
―
Bruce Lee
“The ideal is unnatural naturalness, or natural unnaturalness. I mean it is a combination of both.
I mean here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony.
Not if you have one to the extreme, you'll be very unscientific.
If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man
No longer a human being.
It is a successful combination of both.
That way it is a process of continuing growth.
Be water, my friend.”
―
Bruce Lee
“The enemy of development is this pain phobia - the unwillingness to do a tiny bit of suffering.”
―
Bruce Lee
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.”
―
Bruce Lee
“The more you know, the more you know you don't know. Stay curious.”
―
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
“It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.”
―
Bruce Lee
“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.”
―
Bruce Lee
“The man who is really serious, with the urge to find out what truth is, has no style at all. He lives only in what is.”
―
Bruce Lee
“You just wait. I'm going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.”
―
Bruce Lee
“In Buddhism, there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when you're tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.”
―
Bruce Lee