“I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.”
―
Bruce Lee
“The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.”
―
Bruce Lee
“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.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Only the self-sufficient stand alone - most people follow the crowd and imitate.”
―
Bruce Lee
“The ideal is unnatural naturalness, or natural unnaturalness. I mean it is a combination of both.
I mean here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony.
Not if you have one to the extreme, you'll be very unscientific.
If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man
No longer a human being.
It is a successful combination of both.
That way it is a process of continuing growth.
Be water, my friend.”
―
Bruce Lee
“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.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as a reality-in your own mind
―
Bruce Lee
“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
“Use no way as way, make no limitation, limitation.”
―
Bruce Lee
“When the opponent expand, I contract. When he contracts, I expand. And, when there is an opportunity, I do not hit - it hits all by itself.”
―
Bruce Lee
“If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Not being tense but ready.
Not thinking but not dreaming.
Not being set but flexible.
Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.
It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Its like a finger pointing away to the moon. Dont concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”
―
Bruce Lee
“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.”
―
Bruce Lee
