"A fight is not won by one punch or kick. Either learn to endure or hire a bodyguard." (Bruce Lee)
"A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at." (Bruce Lee)
"A good fight should be like a small play...but played seriously. When the opponent expands, l contract. When he contracts, l expand. And when there is an opportunity... l do not hit...it hits all by itself." (Bruce Lee)
"A good martial artist puts his mind on one thing at a time. He takes each thing as it comes, finishes with it, and passes on to the next." (Bruce Lee)
"A good JKD man does not oppose force or give way completely. He is pliable as a spring; he is the complement and not the opposition to his opponent’s strength. He has no technique; he makes his opponent's technique his technique. He has no design; he makes opportunity his design." (Bruce Lee)
"A good martial artist does not become tend but ready, not thinking but jet not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come." (Bruce lee)
"A good martial artist puts his mind on one thing at a time. He takes each thing as it comes, finishes with it, and passes on to the next. Like a Zen master, he is not concerned with the past or the future, only with what he is doing at that moment. Because his mind is tight, he is calm and able to maintain strength in reserve. And then there will be room for only one thought, which will fill his entire being as water fills a pitcher. You wasted an enormous amount of energy because you did not localize and focus your mind. Always remember: in life as well as on the mat an unfocused or 'loose' mind wastes energy." (Bruce Lee)
"A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence." (Bruce Lee)
"A martial artist who drills exclusively to a set pattern of combat is losing his freedom. He is actually becoming a slave to a choice pattern and feels that the pattern is the real thing. It leads to stagnation because the way of combat is never based on personal choice and fancies, but constantly changes from moment to moment, and the disappointed combatant will soon find out that his 'choice routine' lacks pliability. There must be a 'being' instead of a 'doing' in training. One must be free. Instead of complexity of form, there should be simplicity of expression." (Bruce Lee)
"A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough. " (Bruce Lee)
"A teacher is never a giver of truth; he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself." (Bruce Lee)
"A teacher must never impose this student to fit his favourite pattern; a good teacher functions as a pointer, exposing his student's vulnerability (and) causing him to explore both internally and finally integrating himself with his being. Martial art should not be passed out indiscriminately." (Bruce Lee)
"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer." (Bruce Lee)
"Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own." (Bruce Lee)
"Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." (Bruce Lee)
"Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back." (Bruce Lee)
"All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns." (Bruce Lee)
"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it." (Bruce Lee)
"Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it." (Bruce Lee)
"Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul." (Bruce Lee)
"Art is the expression of the self. The more complicated and restricted the method, the less the opportunity for expression of one's original sense of freedom. Though they play an important role in the early stage, the techniques should not be too mechanical, complex or restrictive. If we cling blindly to them, we shall eventually become bound by their limitations. Remember, you are expressing the techniques and not doing the techniques. If somebody attacks you, your response is not Technique No.1, Stance No. 2, Section 4, Paragraph 5. Instead you simply move in like sound and echo, without any deliberation. It is as though when I call you, you answer me, or when I throw you something, you catch it. It's as simple as that — no fuss, no mess. In other words, when someone grabs you, punch him. To me a lot of this fancy stuff is not functional." (Bruce Lee)
"Art lives where absolute freedom is because when it is not, there can be no creativity." (Bruce Lee)
"Art requires imagination. It requires Creativity. Creativity requires experience and experience comes from your life. And your life is expressed in your art." (Bruce Lee)
"As long as I can remember I feel I have had this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision. It is all these combined. My brain becomes magnetized with this dominating force which I hold in my hand." (Bruce Lee)
"As you think, so shall you become." (Bruce Lee)
"At least empty your cup and try." (Bruce Lee)
"Be a practical dreamer backed by action." (Bruce Lee)
"Be happy, but never satisfied." (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." (Bruce Lee)
"Be self aware, rather than a repetitious robot " (Bruce Lee)
"Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I've understood the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. The height of cultivation is really nothing special. It is merely simplicity; the ability to express the utmost with the minimum. It is the halfway cultivation that leads to ornamentation. Jeet Kune-Do is basically a sophisticated fighting style stripped to its essentials." (Bruce Lee)
"Boards don't hit back." (Bruce Lee)
"But in classical styles, system becomes more important than the man! The classical man functions with a pattern of style." (Bruce Lee , "Tao of Jeet kune Do")
"Classical forms dull your creativity, condition and freeze your sense of freedom. You no longer ‘be’ but merely ‘do’ without sensitivity." (Bruce Lee , "Tao of Jeet kune Do")
"Defeat is a state of mind. No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth." (Bruce Lee)
"Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as a reality-in your own mind." (Bruce Lee)
"Do not be tense, just be ready, not thinking but not dreaming, not being set but being flexible. It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come." (Bruce Lee)
"Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there." (Bruce Lee)
"Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one." (Bruce Lee)
"Do not run away; let go. Do not seek, for it will come when least expected." (Bruce Lee)
"Don't fear failure. - Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail." (Bruce Lee)
"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water." (Bruce Lee)
"Efficiency in sparring and fighting is not a matter of correct classical, traditional form. Efficiency is anything that scores. Creating fancy forms and classical sets to replace sparring is like trying to wrap and tie a pound of water into a manageable shape of paper sack. For something that is static, fixed, dead, there can be a way or a definite path; but not for anything that is moving and living. In sparring there's no exact path or method, but instead a perceptive, pliable, choice-less awareness. It lives from moment to moment." (Bruce Lee)
"Eliminate "not clear" thinking and function from your root." (Bruce Lee)
"Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality." (Bruce Lee)
"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 it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." (Bruce Lee)
"Eventually, you learn to read groups of words. Where a student will see three motions, the experienced man will see one, because he sees the overall energy path." (Bruce Lee)
"Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential." (Bruce Lee)
"Everything you do, if not in a relaxed state will be done at a lesser level than you are proficient. Thus the tensed expert marksman will aim at a level less than his/her student." (Bruce Lee)
"Finally, a Jeet Kune Do man who says Jeet Kune Do is exclusively Jeet Kune Do is simply not with it. He is still hung up on his self-closing resistance, in this case anchored down to reactionary pattern, and naturally is still bound by another modified pattern and can move within its limits. He has not digested the simple fact that truth exists outside all molds; pattern and awareness is never exclusive." (Bruce Lee)
"For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime." (Bruce Lee)
"Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life. Do not be concerned with escaping safely - lay your life before him." (Bruce Lee)
"Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing." (Bruce Lee)
"How many times have I told you both to concentrate all the energy of the body and mind on one specific target or goal at a time. The secret of kime (tightening the mind) is to exclude all extraneous thoughts, thoughts that are not concerned with achieving your immediate goal." (Bruce Lee)
"I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to 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 has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude." (Bruce Lee)
"I am not teaching you anything. I just help you to explore yourself." (Bruce Lee)
"I believe in having a few pupils at one time as it requires a constant alert observation of each individual in order to establish a direct relationship. A good teacher can never be fixed in a routine... each moment requires a sensitive mind that is constantly changing and constantly adapting." (Bruce Lee)
"I believe that the only way to teach anyone proper self-defence is to approach each individual personally. Each one of us is different and each one of us should be taught the correct form. By correct form I mean the most useful techniques the person is inclined toward. Find his ability and then develop these techniques. I don't think it is important whether a side kick is performed with the heel higher than the toes, as long as the fundamental principle is not violated. Most classical martial arts training is a mere imitative repetition - a product - and individuality is lost." (Bruce Lee)
"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." (Bruce Lee)
"I have not invented a 'new style', composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from 'this' method or 'that' method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see 'ourselves'. [...] Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of. Either you understand or you don't, and that is that." (Bruce Lee)
"I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves." (Bruce Lee)
"I refer to my hands, feet and body as the tools of the trade. The hands and feet must be sharpened and improved daily to be efficient." (Bruce Lee)
"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)
"If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo." (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)
"If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." (Bruce Lee)
"If you don't want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today." (Bruce Lee)
"If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow - you are not understanding yourself." (Bruce Lee , "Tao of Jeet kune Do")
"If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of." (Bruce Lee)
"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done." (Bruce Lee)
"If you want to do your duty properly, you should do just a little more than that." (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)
"I'll give you my secret for ridding my mind of negative | thoughts. When such a thought enters my mind, I visualize it as being written on a piece of paper. Then I visualize myself wadding the paper up into a tight ball. Then I mentally light it on fire and visualize it burning to a crisp. The negative thought is destroyed, never to enter my mind again." (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)
"I'm not a master, I'm a student-master, meaning that I have the knowledge of a master and the expertise of a master, but I'm still learning, So I'm a student-master. I don't believe in the word master, I consider the master as such when they close the casket." (Bruce Lee)
"In building a statue, a sculptor doesn't keep adding clay to his subject. Actually, he keeps chiselling away at the inessentials until the truth of its creation is revealed without obstructions. Thus, contrary to other styles, being wise in Jeet Kune-Do doesn't mean adding more; it means to minimize, in other words to hack away the unessential." (Bruce Lee)
"In combat, spontaneity rules; rote performance of technique perishes." (Bruce Lee)
"In Jeet Kune-Do, physical conditioning is a must for all martial artists. If you are not physically fit, you have no business doing any hard sparring. To me, the best exercise for this is running. Running is so important that you should keep it up during your lifetime. What time of the day you run is not important as long as you run. In the beginning you should jog easily and then gradually increase the distance and tempo, and finally include sprints to develop your 'wind.'" (Bruce Lee)
"In JKD, one does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity." (Bruce Lee)
"In primary freedom, one utilizes all ways and is bound by none, and likewise uses any techniques or means which serves one's end. Efficiency is anything that scores." (Bruce Lee)
"Into a soul absolutely free from thoughts and emotion, even the tiger finds no room to insert its fierce claws." (Bruce Lee)
"It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come." (Bruce Lee)
"It is like a finger pointing toward the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory." (Bruce Lee)
"It is true that the mental aspect of kung-fu is the desired end; however, to achieve this end, technical skill must come first." (Bruce Lee)
"Jeet Kune Do is training and discipline towards the ultimate reality in combat. Jeet Kune-Do is the only non-classical style of Chinese Kung Fu in existence today. It is simple in its execution, although not so simple to explain. Jeet means "to stop, to stem, to intercept," while Kune means "fist" or "style," and Do means "the way" or "the ultimate reality." In other words — "The Way of the Intercepting Fist." (Bruce Lee)
"Jeet Kune-Do is the only non-classical style of Chinese Kung Fu in existence today. It is simple in its execution, although not so simple to explain. Jeet means 'to stop, to stem, to intercept,' while Kune means 'fist' or 'style,' and Do means 'the way' or 'the ultimate reality.' In other words--'The Way of the Intercepting Fist.'" (Bruce Lee)
"Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do." (Bruce Lee)
"Knowledge in martial arts actually means self-knowledge. A martial artist has to take responsibility for himself and accept the consequences of his own doing. The understanding of JKD is through personal feeling from movement to movement in the mirror of the relationship and not through a process of isolation. To be is to be related. To isolate is death. To me, ultimately, martial arts means honestly expressing yourself. Now, it is very difficult to do. It has always been very easy for me to put on a show and be cocky, and be flooded with a cocky feeling and feel pretty cool and all that. I can make all kinds of phoney things. Blinded by it. Or I can show some really fancy movement. But to experience oneself honestly, not lying to oneself, and to express myself honestly, now that, my friend, is very hard to do." (Bruce Lee)
"Knowledge will give you power, but character, respect." (Bruce Lee)
"Learn the principle, abide by the principle, and dissolve the principle. In short, enter a mold without being caged in it. Obey the principle without being bound by it. Learn, master, and achieve!" (Bruce Lee)
"Let an opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let an opponent smash into your flesh and you fracture his bone; let an opponent fracture your bone and you take his life! Do not be concerned with your escaping safely; lay your life before him!" (Bruce Lee)
"Let him smash your flesh, and you fracture his bone. Let him fracture your bone, and you take his life. Lay your life before him." (Bruce Lee)
"Let me give you a bit of warning: just because you get very good at your training it should not go to your head that you are an expert. Remember, actual sparring is the ultimate, and the training is, only a means toward this. Besides running, one should also do exercises for the stomach - sit-ups, leg raises, etc. Too often one of those big-belly masters will tell you that his internal power has sunk to his stomach; he's not kidding, it is sunk and gone! To put it bluntly, he is nothing but fat and ugly." (Bruce Lee)
"Let the spirit out - Discard all thoughts of reward, all hopes of praise and fears of blame, all awareness of one's bodily self. And, finally closing the avenues of sense perception, let the spirit out, as it will." (Bruce Lee)
"Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement." (Bruce Lee)
"Like everyone else you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose — to accept defeat. To learn to die is to be liberated from it. So when tomorrow comes you must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying!" (Bruce Lee)
"Love is friendship caught on fire." (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)
"Man can not fly, Maybe, but we'll try," (Bruce Lee)
"Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system." (Bruce Lee)
"Many people dedicate their lives to actualizing a concept of what they should be like, rather than actualizing themselves. This difference between self-actualization and self-image actualization is very important. Most people live only for their image." (Bruce Lee)
"Mere technical knowledge is only the beginning of Kung Fu, to master it, one must enter into the spirit of it." ( Bruce Lee ) (Bruce Lee)
"Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them." (Bruce Lee)
"mushin, which literally means 'no-mind.' According to the Zen masters, mushin is operating when the actor is separate from the act and no thoughts interfere with action because the unconscious act is the most free and uninhibited. When mushin functions, the mind moves from one activity to another, flowing like a stream of water and filling every space." (Bruce Lee)
"My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty." (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)"
"Nothingness cannot be defined; the softest thing cannot be snapped." (Bruce Lee)
"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind." (Bruce Lee)
"Obey the principles without being bound by them." (Bruce Lee)
"One should not respond to circumstance with artificial and wooden prearrangement. Your action should be like the immediacy of a shadow adapting to its moving object. Your task is simply to complete the other half of the oneness spontaneously." (Bruce Lee)
"Out of chaos, find simplicity, From discord, find harmony." (Bruce Lee)
"Please do not be concerned with soft versus firm, kicking versus striking, grappling versus hitting and kicking, long-range fighting versus infighting. There is no such thing as 'this' is better than 'that'. Should there be one thing we must guard against, let it be partiality that robs us of our pristine wholeness and make us lose unity in the midst of duality." (Bruce Lee)
"Practice all movements slow and fast, soft and hard; the effectiveness of Jeet Kune-Do depends on split-second timing and reflexive action, which can be achieved only through repetitious practice." (Bruce Lee)
"Put every great teacher together in a room, and they'd agree about everything; put their disciples in there and they'd argue about everything." (Bruce Lee)
"Real living is living for others." (Bruce Lee)
"Self-knowledge involves relationship. To know oneself is to study one self in action with another person. Relationship is a process of self evaluation and self revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself - to be is to be related." (Bruce Lee)
"Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory." (Bruce Lee)
"Simplicity is the key to brilliance." (Bruce Lee)
"Sorrows are our best educator. A man can see further through a tear than a telescope." (Bruce Lee)
"Styles tend to not only separate men - because they have their own doctrines and then the doctrine became the gospel truth that you cannot change. But if you do not have a style, if you just say: Well, here I am as a human being, how can I express myself totally and completely? Now, that way you won't create a style, because style is a crystallization. That way, it's a process of continuing growth." (Bruce Lee)
"Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against. " (Bruce Lee)
"Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick." (Bruce Lee)
"The combatant should be alive in sparring, throwing punches and kicks from all angles, and should not be a co-operative robot. Like water, sparring should be formless. Pour water into a cup, it becomes part of the cup. Pour it into a bottle; it becomes part of the bottle. Try to kick or punch it, it is resilient; clutch it and it will yield without hesitation. In fact, it will escape as pressure is being applied to it." (Bruce Lee)
"The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action. There is no fixed teaching. All I can provide is an appropriate medicine for a particular ailment." (Bruce Lee)
"The danger of training with the heavy bag is that it doesn't react to one’s attack and sometimes there is a tendency to thoughtlessness. One will punch the bag carelessly, and would be vulnerable in a real situation if this became a habit." (Bruce Lee)
"The first rule is to keep yourself well covered at all times and never leave yourself open while sparring around the bag. By all means use your footwork — side stepping, feinting, varying your kicks and blows to the bag. Do not shove or flick at it. Explode through it and remember that the power of the kick and punch comes from the correct contact at the right spot and at the right moment with the body in perfect position; not, as many people think, from the vigor with which the kicks or blows are delivered." (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)
"The height of cultivation runs to simplicity. Halfway cultivation runs to ornamentation." (Bruce Lee)
"The highest technique is to have no technique. My technique is a result of your technique; my movement is a result of your movement. A good JKD man does not oppose force or give way completely. He is pliable as a spring; he is the complement and not the opposition to his opponent’s strength. He has no technique; he makes his opponent's technique his technique. He has no design; he makes opportunity his design. One should not respond to circumstance with artificial and "wooden" prearrangement. Your action should be like the immediacy of a shadow adapting to its moving object. Your task is simply to complete the other half of the oneness spontaneously." (Bruce Lee)
"The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering." (Bruce Lee)
"The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be." (Bruce Lee)
"The main characteristic JKD is the absence of the usual classical passive blocking. Blocking is the least efficient. Jeet Kune-Do is offensive; it's alive and it's free." (Bruce Lee)
"The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a patter of systems" (Bruce Lee)
"The mind is like a fertile garden. It will grow anything you wish to plant - beautiful flowers or weeds. And so it is with successful, healthy thoughts or with negative ones that will, like weeds, strangle and crowd the others. Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence." (Bruce Lee)
"The more relaxed the muscles are, the more energy can flow through the body. Using muscular tensions to try to 'do' the punch, or attempting to use brute force to knock someone over, will only work to opposite effect." (Bruce Lee)
"The old-fashioned punching speed bag teaches you to hit straight and square; if you don't hit it straight the bag will not return directly to you. Besides learning footwork, you can hit the bag upward too. Another important function is that after the delivery of the punch, the bag will return instantaneously and this will teach you to be alert and to recover quickly. The bag should not be hit in a rhythmic motion but instead in a broken rhythm. Actually fight the bag as if it is your opponent." (Bruce Lee)
"The past is an illusion. You must learn to live in the present and accept yourself for what you are now. What you lack in flexibility and agility you must make up with knowledge and constant practice." (Bruce Lee)
"The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease." (Bruce Lee)
"The point is doing of them rather than the accomplishments. There is no actor but the action; there is no experiencer but the experience." (Bruce Lee)
"The possession of anything begins in the mind." (Bruce Lee)
"The secret of kime (tightening the mind) is to exclude all extraneous thoughts, thoughts that are not concerned with achieving your immediate goal." (Bruce Lee)
"The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits. " (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)
"The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus." (Bruce Lee)
"The techniques, though they play an important role in the early stage, should not be too restrictive, complex or mechanical. If we cling to them, we will become bound by their limitation. Remember, you are expressing the technique, and not doing Technique number two, Stance three, Section four?" (Bruce Lee)
"The void is no mere emptiness, but is real, free and existing. It is the source from which all things arise and return. It cannot be seen, touched or known, yet it exists and is freely used. It has no shape, size, colour or form, and yet all that we see, hear, feel and touch is "it". It is beyond intellectual knowing and cannot be grasped by the ordinary mind. When we suddenly awake to the realization that there is no barrier, and has never been seen, one realizes that one is all things, mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, sun, moon, stars, universe are all oneself. There is no longer a division or barrier between myself and others, no longer any feeling of alienation or fear. Realizing this, results in true compassion. Other people and things are not seen as apart from oneself, on the contrary, as one's own body." (Bruce Lee)
"There is no fixed teaching. All I can provide is an appropriate medicine for a particular ailment." (Bruce Lee)
"There is no mystery about my style. My movements are simple, direct and non-classical. The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune-Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way. Jeet Kune-Do is simply the direct expression of one's feelings with the minimum of movements and energy. The closer to the true way of Kung Fu, the less wastage of expression there is." (Bruce Lee)
"There is nothing better than free-style sparring in the practice of any combative art. In sparring you should wear suitable protective equipment and go all out. Then you can truly learn the correct timing and distance for the delivery of the kicks, punches, etc. It is a good idea to spar with all types of individuals--tall, short, fast, clumsy. Yes, at times a clumsy fellow will mess up a better man because his awkwardness serves as a sort of broken rhythm. The best sparring partner, though, is a quick, strong man who does not know anything; a madman who goes all out, scratching, grabbing, grappling, punching, kicking, and so on." (Bruce Lee)
"This statement expresses my feelings perfectly: 'In memory of a once fluid man, crammed and distorted by the classical mess.'" (Bruce Lee)
"Time means a lot to me because you see I am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing." (Bruce Lee)
"To express yourself in freedom you must die to everything of yesterday." (Bruce Lee)
"To generate great power you must first totally relax and gather your strength, and then concentrate your mind and all your strength on hitting your target." (Bruce Lee)
"To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities." (Bruce Lee)
"To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person." (Bruce Lee)
"To me totality is very important in sparring. Many styles claim this totality. They say that they can cope with all types of attacks; that their structures cover all the possible lines and angles, and are capable of retaliation from all angles and lines. If this is true, then how did all the different styles come about? If they are in totality, why do some use only the straight lines, others the round lines, some only kicks, and why do still others who want to be different just flap and flick their hands? To me a system that clings to one small aspect of combat is actually in bondage." (Bruce Lee)
"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." (Bruce Lee)
"To reach the masses, some sort of big organization (whether) domestic and foreign branch affiliation, is not necessary. To reach the growing number of students, some sort of pre-conformed set must be established as standards for the branch to follow. As a result all members will be conditioned according to the prescribed system. Many will probably end up as a prisoner of a systematized drill." (Bruce Lee)
"Too much horsing around with unrealistic stances and classic forms and rituals is just too artificial and mechanical, and doesn't really prepare the student for actual combat. A guy could get clobbered while getting into this classical mess. Classical methods like these, which I consider a form of paralysis, only solidify and constrain what was once fluid. Their practitioners are merely blindly rehearsing routines and stunts that will lead nowhere." (Bruce Lee)
"Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion." (Bruce Lee)
"Turn into a doll made of wood: it has no ego, it thinks nothing, it is not grasping or sticky. Let the body and limbs work theselves out in accordance with the discipline they have undergone." (Bruce Lee)
"Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it." (Bruce Lee)
"Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation." (Bruce Lee)
"Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite - there is nothing which it excludes or opposes. It is living void, because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all being." (Bruce Lee)
"We do not become. We simply are." (Bruce Lee)
"We start by dissolving our attitude not by altering outer conditions." (Bruce lee)
"When in actual combat, you're not fighting a corpse. Your opponent is a living, moving object who is not in a fixed position, but fluid and alive. Deal with him realistically, not as though you're fighting a robot. Traditionally, classical form and efficiency are both equally important. I'm not saying form is not important - economy of form that is - but to me, efficiency is anything that scores. Don't indulge in any unnecessary, sophisticated moves. You'll get clobbered if you do, and in a street fight you'll have your shirt zipped off you." (Bruce Lee)
"When one has reached maturity in the art, one will have a formless form. It is like ice dissolving in water. When one has no form, one can be all forms; when one has no style, he can fit in with any style." (Bruce Lee)
"When people talk about fighting schools they say that Kung Fu, or Karate, or this other style is the best. That is silly, and the problem becomes that the fighting style then becomes set in stone with no growth, and no adaptation, because what works well with me might not work for you." (Bruce Lee)
"When performing the movements, always use your imagination. Picture your adversary attacking, and use Jeet Kune-Do techniques in response to this imagined attack. As these techniques become more innate, new meaning will begin to emerge and better techniques can be formulated." (Bruce Lee)
"When there is freedom from mechanical conditioning, there is simplicity. The classical man is just a bundle of routine, ideas and tradition. If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow - you are not understanding yourself." (Bruce Lee)
"When you freely express, you are the total style." (Bruce Lee)
"When you point to the moon, what do you see in front of your finger; Your task is to feel, not to think, when you can understand that the lesson will be learned." (Bruce Lee)
"When your opponent is inside your circle and you cannot or will not retreat any farther, you must fight. But until then, you should maintain your control and your distance." (Bruce Lee)
"When you're talking about fighting, as it is, with no rules, well then, baby you'd better train every part of your body!" (Bruce Lee)
"When, in a split second, your life is threatened, do you say, "Let me make sure my hand is on my hip, and my style is 'the' style?" When your life is in danger, do you argue about the method you will adhere to while saving yourself? Why the duality?" (Bruce Lee)
"You cannot force the Now. - But can you neither condemn nor justify and yet be extraordinarily alive as you walk on? You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open." (Bruce Lee)
"You will never learn anything new unless you are ready to accept yourself with your limitations. You must accept the fact that you are capable in some directions and limited in others, and you must develop your capabilities." (Bruce Lee)
