Top 400 Bruce Lee Quotes (2024 Update)
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351. “Circumstances hell! I make circumstances!”

— Bruce Lee

352. “All martial arts is simply an honest expression of one’s body – with a lot of deception in between.”

— Bruce Lee

353. “To be what I term a ‘quality’ human being one has to be transparently real and have the courage to be what he is.”

— Bruce Lee

354. “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

355. “The best form of endurance exercise is the performance of the event.”

— Bruce Lee

356. “Knowledge, surely, is always of time, whereas knowing is not of time. Knowledge is from a source, from accumulation, from conclusion, while knowing is a movement.”

— Bruce Lee

357. “Can you look at a situation without naming it? Naming it, making it a word, causes fear.”

— Bruce Lee

358. “I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves. It is futile to argue as to which leaf, which design of branches, or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoming.”

— Bruce Lee

359. “Let yourself go with dis-ease, be with it, and keep it company. This is the way to be rid of it.”

— Bruce Lee

360. “Put every great teacher in a room, and they’d agree about everything, but put their disciples in there and they’d argue about everything.”

— Bruce Lee

361. “The principle of martial arts is not a thing that can be learned, like a science, by fact-finding and instruction in facts. It has to grow spontaneously, like a flower, in a mind free from emotions and desires.”

— Bruce Lee

362. “True thusness is the substance of thought, and thought is the function of true thusness. There is no thought except that of true thusness. Thusness does not move, but its motion and function are inexhaustible.”

— Bruce Lee

363. “To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery.”

— Bruce Lee

364. “For something that is static, fixed, dead, there can be a way or a definite path; but not for anything that is moving and living.”

— Bruce Lee

365. “There are too many stars and too few actors.”

— Bruce Lee

366. “Take inventory of everyone with whom you have contact.”

— Bruce Lee

367. “Through my own observations. I am convinced that an absolutely honest and direct inquiry into oneself will lead to understanding.”

— Bruce Lee

368. “A good fighter must sense rather than perceive his chance to strike.”

— Bruce Lee

369. “A quality martial artist is always ready for any move, and trains oneself invincible.”

— Bruce Lee

370. “The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world.”

— Bruce Lee

371. “The more relaxed the muscles are, the more energy can flow through the body. Using muscular tensions to try to ‘do’ the punch or attempting to use brute force to knock someone over will only work to opposite effect.”

— Bruce Lee

372. “We shall find the answer when we examine the problem, the problem is never apart from the answer, the problem IS the answer, understanding the problem dissolves the problem.”

— Bruce Lee

373. “I don’t believe in different ways of fighting now. I mean, unless human beings have 3 arms and 3 legs, then we will have a different way of fighting. But basically we all have two arms and two legs so that is why I believe there should be only one way of fighting and that is no way.”

— Bruce Lee

374. “If people say Jeet Kune Do is different from this or from that, then let the name of Jeet Kune Do be wiped out, for that is what it is, just a name. Please don’t fuss over it.”

— Bruce Lee

375. “To tolerate is to insult.”

— Bruce Lee

376. “The core of understanding lies in the individual mind, and until that is touched everything is uncertain and superficial. Truth cannot be perceived until we come to fully understand our potential and ourselves. After all, knowledge in the martial arts ultimately means self-knowledge.”

— Bruce Lee

377. “Have no rigid system in you, and you’ll be flexible to change with the ever changing.”

— Bruce Lee

378. “Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing.”

— Bruce Lee

379. “The world is full of people who are determined to be somebody or to give trouble. They want to get ahead, to stand out. Such ambition has no use for a gung fu man, who rejects all forms of self-assertiveness and competition.”

— Bruce Lee

380. “Since weight training involves repetitions, a great deal of energy must be exerted. Therefore, weight training should be practiced only every other day.”

— Bruce Lee

381. “I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies.”

— Bruce Lee

382. “You and your opponent are one. There is a coexisting relationship between you. You coexist with your opponent and become his complement, absorbing his attack and using his force to overcome him.”

— Bruce Lee

383. “Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself – to be is to be related.”

— Bruce Lee

384. “True observation begins when devoid of set patterns; freedom of expression occurs when one is beyond system.”

— Bruce Lee

385. “What we are after is the root and not the branches. The root is the real knowledge; the branches are surface knowledge. Real knowledge breeds ‘body feel’ and personal expression; surface knowledge breeds mechanical conditioning and imposing limitation and squelches creativity.”

— Bruce Lee

386. “Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that.”

— Bruce Lee

387. “Once I slow down because I think I have reached my peak, then my skills will go nowhere but down.”

— Bruce Lee

388. “Self-will seems to be the only virtue that takes no account of man-made laws.”

— Bruce Lee

389. “Conditioning obstructs our view of reality. We do not see IT in its suchness because of our indoctrination, crooked and twisted.”

— Bruce Lee

390. “Prosperity is apt to prevent us from examining our conduct; but adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is beneficial to us.”

— Bruce Lee

391. “The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a patter of systems.”

— Bruce Lee

392. “When there is freedom from mechanical conditioning, there is simplicity.”

— Bruce Lee

393. “As long as we separate this oneness into two we won’t achieve realization.”

— Bruce Lee

394. “Linda and I aren’t one and one. We are two halves that make a whole – two halves fitted together are more efficient than either half would ever be alone!”

— Bruce Lee

395. “The martial arts are based upon understanding, hard work and a total comprehension of skills. Power training and the use of force are easy, but total comprehension of all of the skills of the martial arts is very difficult to achieve.”

— Bruce Lee

396. “The abdominal and waist region coordinate all parts of the body and act as the center or generator. Therefore, you can promote the ability to control the body’s action and master your will more easily.”

— Bruce Lee

397. “There is “what is” only when there is no comparing and to live with “what is” is to be peaceful.”

— Bruce Lee

398. “Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-consciousn ess.”

— Bruce Lee

399. “To contemplate a thing implies maintaining oneself OUTSIDE it, resolved to keep a distance between it and ourselves.”

— Bruce Lee

400. “The Now is indivisible. Completeness, the now, is an absence of the conscious mind to strive to divide that which is indivisible. For once the completeness of things is taken apart it is no longer complete.”

— Bruce Lee