Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong and American martial artist, actor, director, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that is often credited with paving the way for modern mixed martial arts (MMA). Lee is considered by critics, media, and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century, who bridged the gap between East and West. He is credited with promoting Hong Kong action cinema and helping to change the way Asians were presented in American films.
He is noted for his roles in five feature-length Hong Kong martial arts films in the early 1970s: Lo Wei’s The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Golden Harvest’s The Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; and Golden Harvest and Warner Brothers’ Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978)
Lee died on July 20, 1973, at age 32. Since his death, Lee has continued to be a prominent influence on modern combat sports, including judo, karate, mixed martial arts, and boxing, as well as modern popular culture, including film, television, comics, animation, and video games. Time named Lee one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.
Quotes |
| Those who gain, lose. |
| Boards don’t hit back. |
| The doer alone learns. |
| Motivation of the trainee. |
| Love is an egotism of two. |
| Faith without work is death. |
| Be happy, but never satisfied. |
| Don’t strive to become, but be. |
| Self-education makes great men. |
| The inner self is the true self. |
| Real living is living for others. |
| As you think, so shall you become. |
| Not what to think but how to think. |
| The word ‘superstar’ is an illusion. |
| Simplicity is the key to brilliance. |
| Without respect, love cannot go long. |
| The essence: free movement of spirit. |
| Maintaining their complete attention. |
| Art is the communication of feelings. |
| Nothing exists except the here and now. |
| Failure is what your mind acknowledges. |
| Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory. |
| In the middle of chaos lies opportunity. |
| Faith backed by action is applied faith. |
| Be a practical dreamer backed by action. |
| If you are in the now, you are inventive. |
| Do not precede others, always follow them. |
| The inability to adapt brings destruction. |
| Be flexible so you can change with change. |
| It is later than you think! Know yourself! |
| Life is simply what our feelings do to us. |
| The possession of anything begins in mind. |
| Intelligence is the understanding of self. |
| The truth is outside of all fixed patterns. |
| Preparation for tomorrow is hard work today. |
| No man is defeated unless he is discouraged. |
| No one can hurt you unless you allow him to. |
| A person cannot forget someone good for them. |
| To change with change is the changeless state. |
| There is no weapon more deadly than the will. |
| Be self-aware rather than a repetitious robot. |
| A purpose is the eternal condition of success. |
| To refuse to be cast down, that is the lesson. |
| Be self-aware, rather than a repetitious robot. |
| The true stillness is the stillness in movement. |
| Obey the principles without being bound by them. |
| Education: to discover but not merely to imitate. |
| It’s not what you give; it’s the way you give it. |
| I’ll not willingly offend, nor be easily offended. |
| Yesterday’s dreams are often tomorrow’s realities. |
| Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity. |
| A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough. |
| When one is not expressing himself, he is not free. |
| Right conduct is governed by reason and creativity. |
| To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities. |
| False teachers of the Way of life use flowery words. |
| The law of averages: put in more, come out with more. |
| After all, all knowledge simply means self-knowledge. |
| Emotions – the most important motors of our behavior. |
| Knowledge will give you power, but character respect. |
| Thoughts backed by faith will overcome all obstacles. |
| One great cause of failure is a lack of concentration. |
| There is a difference: the world, our reaction to it. |
| The more we value things, the less we value ourselves. |
| Realize the fact that you simply live and not live for. |
| The best techniques are the simple ones executes right. |
| All types of knowledge, ultimately mean self-knowledge. |
| Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal. |
| Meditation is the freeing of the mind from all motives. |
| The spiritual power of man’s will removes all obstacles. |
| You will never get any more out of life than you expect. |
| Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier. |
| You know how I like to think of myself? As a human being. |
| The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be. |
| One must always strive to be better. The sky’s the limit. |
| It’s the will that makes men – success takes perseverance. |
| I don’t want to do anything halfway; it as to be perfect. |
| Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation. |
| Mistakes are always forgivable if one dares to admit them. |
| Every man today is the result of his thoughts of yesterday. |
| To understand your fear is the beginning of really seeing. |
| An idea, by itself, it not erroneous, but judgment makes it. |
| Unquestionably, man has his will – but the woman has her way! |
| If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today. |
| When a man seeks your advice, he generally wants your praise. |
| Success means doing something sincerely and whole-heartedly. |
| Concentration is the root of all the higher abilities in man. |
| Remember, no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged. |
| Art demands only immediate, honest, and whole-hearted action. |
| Keep your mind on the things you want and off those you don’t. |
| Freedom lies in understanding yourself from moment to moment. |
| We can see through others only when we see through ourselves. |
| The essence of fighting is the art of moving at the right time. |
| Art must originate with an experience or feeling of the artist. |
| Simplicity is the last step of art and the beginning of nature. |
| My style? You can call it the art of fighting without fighting. |
| Ever since I was a kid, the word quality has meant a lot to me. |
| Endurance is lost rapidly if one ceases to work at its maximum. |
| Art is an expression of life and transcends both time and space. |
| What’s amiss I’ll stop to mend, And endure what can’t be mended. |
