“Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul.”
―
Bruce Lee
“It is not a shame to be knocked down by other people. The important thing is to ask when you're being knocked down, 'Why am I being knocked down?' If a person can reflect in this way, then there is hope for this person.”
―
Bruce Lee
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.”
―
Bruce Lee
“But neither can you condemn nor justify and yet be extraordinarily alive as you walk on.
You can never invite the wind but you must leave the window open.”
―
Bruce Lee
“The primary reality is not what I think, but that I live, for those also live who do not think. Although this living may not be a real living. God! What contradictions when we seek to join in wedlock life and reason!”
―
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
“Not being tense but ready.
Not thinking but not dreaming.
Not being set but flexible.
Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.
It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.”
―
Bruce Lee
“...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
“To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Ricorda, amico mio, che non è tanto importante quello che ti succede, ma come reagisci agli eventi.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for a difficult on with the strength to endure it.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Having totality means being capable of following "what is," because "what is" is constantly moving and constantly changing. If one is anchored to a particular view, one will not be able to follow the swift movement of "what is.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Pliability is life; rigidity is death, whether one speaks of man’s body, his mind, or his spirit.”
―
Bruce Lee
“All knowledge leads to self-knowledge.”
―
Bruce Lee
“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.”
―
Bruce Lee
