Bruce Lee Quotes & Sayings

“The success of an assailant's attack depends on surprise, and if you're sufficiently alert to prevent a surprise, your counterattack is already halfway to being successful.”

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

“Be a practical dreamer backed by action.”

“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.”

“When you point at the moon, don't stare at your finger. Feel, don't overthink, and the lesson will sink in.”

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.”

“Because one does not want to be disturbed or made uncertain, they establish a pattern of conduct, a pattern of thought, a pattern of relationships to others. Then they become a slave to the pattern and take the pattern to be the real thing.”

“Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind, for they are the weeds that strangle confidence.”

“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”

“Be happy, but never satisfied.”

“Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.”

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

“The essence of fighting is the art of moving at the right time.”

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

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

“As you think, so shall you become.”

“Like a cobra, your strike should be felt before it is seen.”

“It is better to live as a broken piece of jade than to live as a useless clay.”

“With every adversity comes a blessing; a shock reminds you not to get stale in routine.”

“Persistence, persistence, and persistence. Power is created and maintained through daily practice — continuous effort.”

“You cannot force the now. Neither condemn nor justify — and still be extraordinarily alive as you walk on. You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open.”

“It's not the daily increase but the daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

“In Buddhism, there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when you're tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.”

“Self-conquest is the greatest of victories. Mighty is he who conquers himself.”