Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living

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

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

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.

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

You cannot force the Now. — But can you neither 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.

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

Satori - in the awakening from a dream. Awakening and self-realization and seeing into one's own being - these are synonymous.

The disease of philosophy. - Philosophy is itself the disease for which it pretends to be the cure: the wise man does not pursue wisdom but lives his life, and therein precisely does his wisdom lie.

Anger should be expressed. - Any anger that is not coming out, flowing freely, will turn into sadism, power drive, stammering, and other means of torturing.

It is futile to argue as to which single leaf, which design of branch, or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoming.

Don't neglect life by worrying about Death. - I don't know what is the meaning of death, but I am not afraid to die - and I go on, non-stop, going forward [with life]. Even though, I, Bruce Lee, may die some day without fulfilling all of my ambitions, I will have no regrets. I did what I wanted to do and what I've done, I've done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can't expect much more from life.

To free one’s self from preconceived notions, prejudices, and conditioned responses is essential to understanding truth and reality.

Where some people have a self, most people have a void, because they are too busy in wasting their vital creative energy to project themselves as this or that, dedicating their lives to actualizing a concept of what they should be like rather than actualizing their potentiality as a human being

To know, but to be as though not knowing, is the height of wisdom.

Masters in all branches of art must first be masters in living, for the soul creates everything.

The enemy of development is this pain phobia - the unwillingness to do a tiny bit of suffering.

Action is a highroad to self-esteem.

Reject external form that fails to express internal reality.

The key to liberation is within. — Each man binds himself; the fetters are ignorance, laziness, preoccupation with self, and fear. He must liberate himself, while accepting the fact that we are of this world, so that “In summer we sweat; in winter we shiver.

Goals give life substance. - To strive actively to achieve some goal gives your life meaning and substance.

Experiencing is believing. - A fat belly cannot believe that such a thing as hunger exists.

Self-actualization is the important thing. And my personal message to people is that I hope they will go toward self-actualization rather than self-image actualization. I hope that they will search within themselves for honest self-expression. — Bruce Lee

The law of non-interference with nature. — The law of non-interference with nature is a basic principle of Taoism [stating] that one should be in harmony with, not rebellion against, the fundamental laws of the universe. Preserve yourself by following the natural bends of things and don’t interfere. Remember never to assert your self against nature; never be in frontal opposition to any problems, but to control it by swinging with it.

The path of self-realisation is the most difficult. -We acquire a sense of worth either by realising our talents, or by keeping busy, or by identifying ourselves with something apart from us - be it a cause, a leader, a group, possessions, and the like. Of the three, the path of self-realisation is the most difficult. It is taken when other avenues to a sense of worth are more or less blocked.

The aim of education. — Education: to discover but not merely to imitate. Learning techniques without inward experiencing can only lead to superficiality.

Concentration is a form of exclusion, and where there is exclusion, there is a thinker who excludes.

On learning. — Learning is discovery, the discovery of the cause of our ignorance. However, the best way of learning is not the computation of information. Learning is discovering, uncovering what is there in us. When we discover, we are uncovering our own ability, our own eyes, in order to find our potential, to see what is going on, to discover how we can enlarge our lives, to find means at our disposal that will let us cope with a difficult situation. And all this, I maintain, is taking place in the here and now.

Too much concentration belittles life. Concentration is a narrowing down of the mind - but we are concerned with the total process of living, and to concentrate exclusively on any particular aspect of life, belittles life.

Patience is not passive, on the contrary it is concentrated strength.

In solitude you are least alone. — Loneliness is only an opportunity to cut adrift and find yourself. In solitude you are least alone. Make good use of it.