“...we have more faith in what we imitate than in what we originate. We cannot derive a sense of absolute certitude from anything which has its roots in us. The most poignant sense of insecurity comes from standing alone and we are not alone when we imitate. It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Now I see that I will never find the light
Unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel,
Consuming myself.”
―
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
“Because one does not want to be disturbed, to be made uncertain, he establishes a pattern of conduct, of thought, a pattern of relationship to man etc. Then he becomes a slave to the patter and takes the pattern to be the real thing.”
―
Bruce Lee
“All I can tell you is that at the end, there's nothing left but love.”
―
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 more restricted a method, the lesser the opportunity for one's individual freedom of expression.”
―
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
“Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing.”
―
Bruce Lee
“All knowledge leads to self-knowledge.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Self-actualization is the important thing. And my personal message to people is that I hope they will go toward self-actualization rather than self-image actualization. I hope that they will search within themselves for honest self-expression. — Bruce Lee”
―
Bruce Lee
“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
Action is a highroad to self-esteem.”
―
Bruce Lee
“The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits.”
―
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
