Bruce Lee Quotes & Sayings

“If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow — you are not understanding yourself.”

“When the finger points at the moon, don't look at the finger — you'll miss the moon.”

“If every man would help his neighbor, no man would be without help.”

“To understand your fear is the beginning of really seeing.”

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

“To be honest with oneself — and that is very hard to do.”

“To see is to be deceived. To hear is to be lied to. To feel is to believe.”

“I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge is growing.”

“To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth.”

“Time means a lot to me, because I am a learner and often lost in the joy of forever developing.”

“It's the law of averages: put in more, come out with more.”

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

“Believe me that in every big thing or achievement there are always obstacles — big or small — and the reaction one shows to such obstacles is what counts, not the obstacle itself.”

“If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.”

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

“Now I see that I will never find the light unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, consuming myself.”

“Loneliness is only an opportunity to cut adrift and find yourself. In solitude you are least alone.”

“Instead of dedicating your life to actualize a concept of what you should be like, actualize yourself. Maturing isn't becoming captive to concepts; it's realizing what lies in your innermost self.”

“The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world, to state in aesthetic creation the deepest psychic and personal experiences of a human being. It is to enable those experiences to be intelligible and generally recognized within the total framework of an ideal world.”

“The core of understanding lies in the individual mind; until it is touched everything is uncertain and superficial. Truth cannot be perceived until we fully understand our potential and ourselves. Knowledge in the martial arts ultimately means self-knowledge.”

“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.”

“Take no thought of who is right or wrong, or who is better than whom. Be not for or against.”

“Many people dedicate their lives to actualizing a concept of what they should be like, rather than actualizing themselves. The difference between self-actualization and self-image actualization is crucial. Most people live only for their image.”

“Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light.”