“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Not being tense but ready.
Not thinking but not dreaming.
Not being set but flexible.
Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.
It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“If you think a thing is impossible,you'll only make it impossible.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“In Buddhism, there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when you're tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Bring the mind into sharp focus and make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere. The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes and even ordinary thought itself.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Effort within the mind further limits the mind, because effort implies struggle towards a goal and when you have a goal, a purpose, an end in view, you have placed a limit on the mind.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Set patterns, incapable of adaptability, of pliability, only offer a better cage. Truth is outside of all patterns.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Relationship is understanding. It is a process of self-revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself -- to be is to be related.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow -- you are not understanding yourself.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“...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, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Using no way as way. Having no limitation as your only limitation.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“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, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“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, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Having totality means being capable of following "what is," because "what is" is constantly moving and constantly changing. If one is anchored to a particular view, one will not be able to follow the swift movement of "what is.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“There is no mystery about my style. My movements are simple, direct and non-classical. The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune-Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“...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. In the speed of events, which one is really in charge?...to put the heart of martial arts inyour own heart and have it be a part of you means total comprehension and the use of a free style. When you have that you will know that there are no limits.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between “for” and “against” is the mind’s worst disease.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from 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, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Simplicity is the shortest distance between two points.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“There is “what is” only when there is no comparing and to live with “what is” is to be peaceful.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Jeet Kune Do, you see, has no definite lines or boundaries — only those you make yourself.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“To see a thing uncolored by one’s own personal preferences and desires is to see it in its own pristine simplicity.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“To understand techniques, you must learn that they contain a lot of condensed movement.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Use no way as way, make no limitation, limitation.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“The martial arts are based upon understanding, hard work and a total comprehension of skills. Power training and the use of force are easy, but total comprehension of all of the skills of the martial arts is very difficult to achieve.”
― Bruce Lee, quote from Tao of Jeet Kune Do
“Tell Montgomery they can keep shooting and I’m going to stand up to them; tell Montgomery they can keep bombing and I’m going to stand up to them. If I had to die tomorrow morning I would die happy because I’ve been to the mountaintop and I’ve seen the promised land and it’s going to be here in Montgomery.”
― quote from Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, JR., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
“Sex is not wrong. Sex is not dirty. Not even sex in a public place with a man you barely know. It's not. Sex is a gift, a built-in human pleasure, something to enjoy and cherish and utilize. Sex rejuvenates. Sex replenishes. Orgasms are just one more miraculous function our body provides, no more shameful than a sneeze or the beating of our hearts. Sex is not dirty, not even in public places with someone you barely know. Liking sex, like a man's hands on me, coming with him, letting him inside me...that doesn't make me dirty.”
― Megan Hart, quote from Dirty
“That’s why therapists are (were) some of the most screwed up people on the planet. It’s impossible to listen to that many people with that many problems and not begin to inherit more than your fair share of them. Just think about it.”
― Mark Tufo, quote from The End
“Snow is falling outside and all is peaceful and still. In such moments it is possible to believe that the world could still be good.”
― Richard Paul Evans, quote from Grace
“It had been off-hand and flattering, in exactly the proper proportions, and Louise had cleverly erected a thin shield of something that was less than and better than love to protect him from the comic, unending abuse of the Army. And, now, it was probably over. Women, Michael thought resentfully, can never learn the art of being transients. They are all permanent settlers at heart, making homes with dull, instinctive persistence in floods and wars, on the edges of invasions, at the moment of the crumbling of states. No, he thought, I will not have it. For my own protection I am going to get through this time alone …”
― Irwin Shaw, quote from The Young Lions
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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