Je Roh > Je's Quotes

“...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. 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, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“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

“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

“The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.”
― 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

“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, Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living

“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

“The possession of anything begins in the mind.”
― Bruce Lee

“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

“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, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. 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. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
― 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 beings.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“Only the self-sufficient stand alone - most people follow the crowd and imitate.”
― Bruce Lee

“Because one does not want to be disturbed, to be made uncertain, he establishes a pattern of conduct, of thought, a pattern of relationship to man etc. Then he becomes a slave to the patter and takes the pattern to be the real thing.”
― Bruce Lee

“The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.”
― Bruce Lee

“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.”
― Bruce Lee

“I wish neither to possess nor to be possessed. I no longer covet 'paradise'. More important, I no longer fear 'hell'.

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

“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

“Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strange confidence.”
― Bruce Lee

“Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you. I'll not willingly offend, nor be easily offended.”
― Bruce Lee

“Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for a difficult on with the strength to endure it.”
― Bruce Lee

“Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“The attitude, “You can win if you want to badly enough,” means that the will to win is constant. No amount of punishment, no amount of effort, no condition is too “tough” to take in order to win. Such an attitude can be developed only if winning is closely tied to the practitioner’s ideals and dreams.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“The ideal is unnatural naturalness, or natural unnaturalness. I mean it is a combination of both.
I mean here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony.
Not if you have one to the extreme, you'll be very unscientific.
If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man
No longer a human being.
It is a successful combination of both.
That way it is a process of continuing growth.
Be water, my friend.”
― Bruce Lee , Bruce Lee: Artist of Life

“Simplicity is the shortest distance between two points.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.”
― Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee Letters of the Dragon: An Anthology of Bruce Lee's Correspondence with Family, Friends, and Fans 1958-1973

“To see a thing uncolored by one’s own personal preferences and desires is to see it in its own pristine simplicity.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“True mastery transcends any particular art. It stems from mastery of oneself--the ability, developed through self-discipline, to be calm, fully aware, and completely in tune with oneself and the surroundings. Then, and only then, can a person know himself.”
― Bruce Lee

“The most dangerous person is the one who listens, thinks and observes”
― 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