“In order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.”
―
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
“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.”
―
Bruce Lee
“To see a thing uncolored by one’s own personal preferences and desires is to see it in its own pristine simplicity.”
―
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
“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.”
―
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
“As you think, so shall you become.”
―
Bruce Lee
“To free one’s self from preconceived notions, prejudices, and conditioned responses is essential to understanding truth and reality.”
―
Bruce Lee
“If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow -- you are not understanding yourself.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Showing off is the fool's idea of glory.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Relationship is a process of self-revelation.”
―
Bruce Lee
“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.”
―
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 round 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
