Bruce Jun Fan Lee was born in 1940 in the USA and was raised in Seattle, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and California. He died at the young age of 33 but already managed to make a strong impact on the world. Lee is considered by many to be the best fighter who ever lived and he is famous for acting and directing American and Chinese movies as well. Lee also practiced philosophy, and these are some of his best quotes.
1. “Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.”
2. “If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.”
3. “Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.”
4. “For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime.”
5. “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.”
6. “I am not teaching you anything. I just help you to explore yourself.”
7. “The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the engagement; you ought not to be thinking of whether it ends in victory or defeat. Let nature take its course, and your tools will strike at the right moment.”
8. “Be happy, but never satisfied.”
9. “A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.”
10. “If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”
11. “Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.”
12. “The more we value things, the less we value ourselves.”
13. “Choose the positive. You have a choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.”
14. "Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."
15. “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”
16. “An intelligent mind is an inquiring mind. It is not satisfied with explanation, with conclusions. Nor is it a mind that believes, because belief is again another form of conclusion.”
17. “To be bound by traditional martial art style or styles is the way of the mindless, enslaved martial artist. But to be inspired by the traditional martial art and to achieve further heights is the way of genius.”
18. “One should be in harmony with, not in opposition to, the strength and force of the opposition. This means that one should do nothing that is not natural or spontaneous; the important thing is not to strain in any way.”
19. “Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”
20. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.”
21. “A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.”
22. “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”
23. “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”
24. “To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”
25. "Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable."
26. “Defeat is a state of mind; No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.”
27. “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”
28. “Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.”
29. “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.”
30. “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
