Top 400 Bruce Lee Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “Willing is not enough, one must apply.”

— Bruce Lee

252. “Learn the principle, abide by the principle, and dissolve the principle. In short, enter a mold without being caged in it. Obey the principle without being bound by it. Learn, master, and achieve.”

— Bruce Lee

253. “Practice all movements slow and fast, soft and hard; the effectiveness of Jeet Kune-Do depends on split-second timing and reflexive action, which can be achieved only through repetitious practice.”

— Bruce Lee

254. “If you make an ass out of yourself, there will always be someone to ride you.”

— Bruce Lee

255. “The best fighter is not a Boxer, Karate or Judo man. The best fighter is someone who can adapt on any style. He kicks too good for a Boxer, throws too good for a Karate man, and punches too good for a Judo man.”

— Bruce Lee

256. “Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you. I’ll not willingly offend, nor be easily offended.”

— Bruce Lee

257. “In life, what more can you ask for than to be real?”

— Bruce Lee

258. “Do not be tense, just be ready, not thinking but not dreaming, not being set but being flexible.”

— Bruce Lee

259. “Maturation is the development from environmental support to self-support.”

— Bruce Lee

260. “Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it.”

— Bruce Lee

261. “I’m not a master. I’m a student-master, meaning that I have the knowledge of a master and the expertise of a master, but I’m still learning. So I’m a student-master. I don’t believe in the word ‘master.’ I consider the master as such when they close the casket.”

— Bruce Lee

262. “You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being. Because, I mean I don’t want to be like As Confucius say, but under the sky, under the heavens there is but one family. It just so happens that people are different.”

— Bruce Lee

263. “Defense is attack, attack is defense, each being the cause and result of the other.”

— Bruce Lee

264. “All goals apart from the means are illusions; becoming is a denial of being.”

— Bruce Lee

265. “Efficiency is anything that scores.”

— Bruce Lee

266. “Where there is no style, there is no slave. Martial Arts mean honestly expressing yourself. No style. No slave.”

— Bruce Lee

267. “When one has no form, one can be all forms.”

— Bruce Lee

268. “When you point to the moon, what do you see in front of your finger; Your task is to feel, not to think, when you can understand that the lesson will be learned.”

— Bruce Lee

269. “To tell the truth, I could beat anybody in the world.”

— Bruce Lee

270. “We have great work ahead of us, and it needs devotion and much, much energy. To grow, to discover, we need involvement.”

— Bruce Lee

271. “Truth cannot be structured or confined.”

— Bruce Lee

272. “It is true that the mental aspect of kung-fu is the desired end; however, to achieve this end, technical skill must come first.”

— Bruce Lee

273. “I’m a philosophy major. That means I can think deep thoughts about being unemployed.”

— Bruce Lee

274. “The three most difficult things in life are: 1. To keep a secret. 2. To forget an injury. 3. To make good use of leisure.”

— Bruce Lee

275. “There’s only one basic principle of self-defense- you must apply the most effective weapon, as soon as possible, to the most vulnerable target.”

— Bruce Lee

276. “I did what I came here to do. What I’ve done I’ve done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can’t expect much more from life.”

— Bruce Lee

277. “Man, he is constantly growing and when he is bound by a set pattern of ideas or way of doing things, that’s when he stops growing.”

— Bruce Lee

278. “Bring the mind into sharp focus and make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere. The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes and even ordinary thought itself.”

— Bruce Lee

279. “The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.”

— Bruce Lee

280. “The timeless moment. – The “moment” has no yesterday or tomorrow. It is not the result of thought and therefore has no time.”

— Bruce Lee

281. “A kung fu man lives without being dependant on the opinions of others, and a master, unlike the beginner, holds himself in reserve. He is quiet and unassuming, with no desire to show off.”

— Bruce Lee

282. “Know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience. – To realize that it’s just an inconvenience, that it is not a catastrophe, but just an unpleasantness, is part of coming into your own, part of waking up.”

— Bruce Lee

283. “You cannot force the Now. – But can you neither 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

284. “The happiness that is derived from excitement is like a brilliant fire- soon it will go out.”

— Bruce Lee

285. “Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart.”

— Bruce Lee

286. “Training is one of the most neglected phases of athletics. Too much time is given to the development of skill and too little to the development of the individual for participation.”

— Bruce Lee

287. “Art lives where absolute freedom is because when it is not, there can be no creativity.”

— Bruce Lee

288. “What Is, is more important than What Should Be.”

— Bruce Lee

289. “Martial arts, like any art, is an unrestricted athletic expression of an individual soul.”

— Bruce Lee

290. “Faith is a state of mind that can be conditioned through self-discipline. Faith will accomplish.”

— Bruce Lee

291. “I don’t want to do anything halfway. It has to be perfect.”

— Bruce Lee

292. “If mere mechanical efficiency can make everyone a martial artist, then all is well. Unfortunately, combat, like freedom, is something that can not be preconceived.”

— Bruce Lee

293. “Reality is apparent when one ceases to compare.”

— Bruce Lee

294. “Everybody has to think for himself. A right way for a big man may not be a right way for a small man. A right way for someone who is slow may not be a right way for someone who is quick. Each person must understand his weaknesses and his strengths.”

— Bruce Lee

295. “One rule is to not use complicated techniques unless they are necessary to achieve your goal. First, use simple movements, and if they don’t work, then introduce the more complex ones.”

— Bruce Lee

296. “Self-knowledge is the basis of jeet kune do because it is effective not only for the individual’s martial art but also for his life as a human being.”

— Bruce Lee

297. “If one loves, one need not have an ideology of love.”

— Bruce Lee

298. “What can you take from me which is not already yours?”

— Bruce Lee

299. “Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception.”

— Bruce Lee

300. “We have more faith in what we imitate than in what we create.”

— Bruce Lee