Fifty Top Bruce Lee Quotes

Fifty Top Bruce Lee Quotes

Bruce Lee’s philosophy is well-documented in books like Tao of Jeet Kune Do and his personal notes, but many quotes circulating online are paraphrased, misattributed, or fabricated. 

Top 50 Bruce Lee Quotes

1. "Don't think, feel."

2. "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."

3. "The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering."

4. "Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own."

5. "To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities."

6. "Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do."

7. "Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless—like water. 

Now you put water in 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."

8. "If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done."

9. "The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus."

10. "Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them."

11. "A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at."

12. "The more we value things, the less we value ourselves."

13. "Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own."

14. "To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person."

15. "The possession of anything begins in the mind."

16. "I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine."

17. "The word 'impossible' is only found in the dictionary of fools."

18. "Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality."

19. "The doubters said, 'Man can not fly,' The doers said, 'Maybe, but we'll try,' And finally soared in the morning glow while non-believers watched from below."

20. "A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer."

21. "If you always put limits 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."

22. "Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against."

23. "The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits."

24. "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."

25. "Real living is living for others."

26. "Simplicity is the key to brilliance."

27. "The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity."

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

29. "A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Not thinking, yet not dreaming, ready for whatever may come."

30. "The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest."

31. "Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing."

32. "Obey the principles without being bound by them."

33. "The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness."

34. "All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns."

35. "The best fighter is never angry."

36. "Faith is a state of mind that can be conditioned through self-discipline. Faith will not be found outside the individual."

37. "To express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself—that, my friend, is very hard to do."

38. "In the middle of chaos lies opportunity."

39. "The more we understand, the greater and deeper will be our contact with all that is around us."

40. "What you habitually think largely determines what you will ultimately become."

41. "A teacher is never a giver of truth—he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself."

42. "The man who is really serious, with the urge to find out what truth is, has no style at all. He lives only in what is."

43. "To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are."

44. "You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world."

45. "Boards don’t hit back."

46. "Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water."

47. "The toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head."

48. "Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier."

49. "If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of."

50. "Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."

These quotes are sourced from Bruce Lee’s writings,Tao of Jeet Kune Do, interviews, letters, and films like Enter the Dragon and The Way of the Dragon