“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
“If there is a God, he is within. You don't ask God to give you things, you depend on God for your inner theme.”
―
Bruce Lee
“I'm moving and not moving at all. I'm like the moon underneath the waves that ever go on rolling and rocking. It is not, "I am doing this," but rather, an inner realization that "this is happening through me," or "it is doing this for me." The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.”
―
Bruce Lee
“To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to either spend or waste and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.”
―
Bruce Lee
“The possession of anything begins in the mind.”
―
Bruce Lee
“To express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself—that, my friend, is very hard to do.”
―
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 around 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
“There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Set patterns, incapable of adaptability, of pliability, only offer a better cage. Truth is outside of all patterns.”
―
Bruce Lee
“The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”
―
Bruce Lee
“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.”
―
Bruce Lee
“If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow -- you are not understanding yourself.”
―
Bruce Lee
“Showing off is the fool's idea of glory.”
―
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
