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Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee Quotes

Martial Artist

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Famous Bruce Lee Quotes

“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.”

FormGuyToo MuchStudentsMethodMessClassicRitualCombatArtificialFluidStanceParalysisRehearsingConstrainHorsing Around
Author:Bruce Lee
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“How can there be methods and systems to arrive at something that is living? To that which is static, fixed, dead, there can be a way, a definite path, but not to that which is living. Do not reduce reality to a static thing and then invent methods to reach it. ...Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. It has no resting place, no form, no organized institution, no philosophy. When you see that, you will understand that this living thing is also what you are. You cannot express and be alive through static, put-together form, through stylized movement.”

WayPhilosophyRealityTogetherFormPathAliveMovementTruth IsMethodInstitutionsFixedOrganizedDefiniteLiving ThingsStatic
Author:Bruce Lee
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“While it may come as a profound surprise to those of us who are in the throes of an emotional or life crisis, the fact remains that the answer to virtually all of our problems resides within us already. It exist in the form of a vast reservoir of free-flowing energy that, when channeled to our muscles, can give us great strength and, when channeled to our brain, can give us great insight and understanding.”

GivingMayFactsProblemFormEnergyUnderstandingAnswersBrainEmotionalCrisisRemainsSurpriseProfoundInsightMusclesReservoirsLife Crisis
Author:Bruce Lee
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“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”

PeopleMenWorldWantGivingSelfUseFormTroubleAmbitionCompetitionDeterminedRejectsStanding OutGet AheadAssertiveness
Book:Bruce Lee The Tao of Gung Fu: A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art
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“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 beings.”

FormRealizingMiddleOppositesFilledVoid
Book:Bruce Lee Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
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“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.”

IfsThinkingInspirationalMindFormFightingGrowthWaterInspiringLearningMeditationAwarenessFriendsBecomingShapesMy FriendsFlowEmptyCupsMartial ArtsBottlesCrashFlexibilityAdaptabilityKarateHindranceDrink WaterMeditation MindMartial Arts InspirationalMeditation MindfulnessTeapotsFlowing WaterBody AwarenessEmpty MindEmpty CupTraining The Mind
Author:Bruce Lee
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“Unfortunately, now in boxing people are only allowed to punch. In Judo, people are only allowed to throw. I do not despise these kinds of martial arts. What I mean is, we now find rigid forms which create differences among clans, and the world of martial art is shattered as a result.”

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Book:Bruce Lee Jeet Kune Do: Bruce Lee's Commentaries on the Martial Way
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“All types of knowledge ultimately lead to self-knowledge. So, therefore, these people are asking me to teach them, not so much how to defend themselves or how to do somebody in. Rather, they want to learn to express themselves through some movement, be it anger, be it determination or whatever. So, in other words, they're paying me to show them, in combative form, the art of expressing the human body.”

PeopleWantHumansArtSelfShowsBodyFormTeachMovementTypeDeterminationAskingSelf KnowledgeHuman Body
Book:Bruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human Body
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