Most Quoted Bruce Lee Words And Philosophical Thoughts

These most quoted Bruce Lee quotes reveal the inner workings of the great martial artist, teacher and philosopher.

Bruce Lee – Martial Artist

Bruce Lee was an incredible martial artist and thinker who is widely respected and admired. He was able to achieve a lot in his short life, including becoming a world-famous actor and martial arts instructor.

Bruce Lee lived by a code of discipline and self-respect. He was always striving to better himself and his martial arts skills.

He inspired people with his dedication to excellence and his unique philosophy on life. Here are some of his most famous quotes:

Best Bruce Lee Quotes

But neither can you 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


A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough

– Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee


If you truly love life, don’t waste time because time is what life is made of.

– Bruce Lee

If you truly love life, don’t waste time because time is what life is made of. - Bruce Lee

Related: Inspirational Life Is Too Short Quotes


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

– Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee


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.

– Bruce Lee

Related: Discipline Quotes

Inspiring Bruce Lee Quotes


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

– Bruce Lee

Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them. - Bruce Lee


In the speed of events, which one is really in charge?…to put the heart of martial arts in your own heart and have it be a part of you means total comprehension and the use of a freestyle. When you have that you will know that there are no limits.

– Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee


Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.

– 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


Its like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.

– Bruce Lee


Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is unique your own.

– Bruce Lee

Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is unique your own. - Bruce Lee


It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.

– Bruce Lee


Real living is living for others.

– Bruce Lee


Bruce Lee Famous Quotes

To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.

– Bruce Lee


There is what is only when there is no comparing and to live with what is is to be peaceful.

– Bruce Lee


Simplicity is the key to brilliance.

– Bruce Lee

Simplicity is the key to brilliance. - 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


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


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


The world is full of people who are determined to be somebody or to give trouble. They want to get ahead, to stand out. Such ambition has no use for a gung fu man, who rejects all forms of self-assertiveness and competition

– Bruce Lee


Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory. 

– Bruce Lee

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.  - Bruce Lee


Remember no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged.

– Bruce Lee

Remember no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged. - Bruce Lee


…good technique includes quick changes, great variety, and speed. It may be a system of reversals much like a concept of God and the Devil.

– 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


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


Don’t fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.

– Bruce Lee


For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime.

– Bruce Lee


Best Quotes by Bruce Lee

…we have more faith in what we imitate than in what we originate. We cannot derive a sense of absolute certitude from anything which has its roots in us.

– Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee

Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier. - Bruce Lee


Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.

– Bruce Lee

Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality. - Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee


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


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

– Bruce Lee


It is not a shame to be knocked down by other people. The important thing is to ask when you’re being knocked down, ‘Why am I being knocked down?’ If a person can reflect in this way, then there is hope for this person.

– Bruce Lee


If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of simplicity quotes to encourage a positive mindset.

– Bruce Lee


If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.

– Bruce Lee

If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today. - Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee


Self-knowledge involves relationship. To know oneself is to study oneself 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


The more we value things, the less we value ourselves

– Bruce Lee

The more we value things, the less we value ourselves - Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at. - Bruce Lee


Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light.

– Bruce Lee

Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light. - Bruce Lee


Reality is apparent when one ceases to compare. There is what is only when there is no comparison at all, and to live with what is, is to be peaceful.

– Bruce Lee


Bruce Lee Motivational Quotes

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


Only the self-sufficient stand alone – most people follow the crowd and imitate.

– Bruce Lee


In order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.

– Bruce Lee


Preparation for tomorrow is hard work today.

– Bruce Lee

Preparation for tomorrow is hard work today. - Bruce Lee


Be happy, but never satisfied.

– Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee

Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. - Bruce Lee


A fight is not won by one punch or kick. Either learn to endure or hire a bodyguard.

– Bruce Lee


The best techniques are the simple ones executed right.

– Bruce Lee

The best techniques are the simple ones executed right. - Bruce Lee


The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning but I did not take it. My ailment came from within myself, but I did not observe it, until this moment. Now I see that I will never find the light unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, consuming myself.

– Bruce Lee


Choose the positive. You have choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success

– Bruce Lee


Fear comes from uncertainty; we can eliminate the fear within us when we know ourselves better.

– Bruce Lee


As you think, so shall you become.

– Bruce Lee

As you think, so shall you become. - Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee


You will never get any more out of life than you expect.

– Bruce Lee

You will never get any more out of life than you expect. - 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


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

– Bruce Lee


In the middle of chaos lies opportunity

– Bruce Lee

In the middle of chaos lies opportunity - Bruce Lee


Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence.

– Bruce Lee

Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence. - Bruce Lee


Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

– Bruce Lee


The most poignant sense of insecurity comes from standing alone and we are not alone when we imitate. It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.

– Bruce Lee


Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.

– Bruce Lee


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

– Bruce Lee


I am not teaching you anything. I just help you to explore yourself.

– Bruce Lee


The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.

– Bruce Lee

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be. - Bruce Lee


Life is never stagnation. It is constant movement, un-rhythmic movement, as we as constant change. Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.

– Bruce Lee

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