Bruce Lee was a martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist) school of martial arts. The anniversary of his death is today, and I wanted to honor Bruce Lee as he has been a role model for me. Even though he was adamant in his belief that he is not a teacher, he has greatly influenced the way I approach life. Instead of celebrating his life with a biography, I believe the best way to honor Bruce Lee is to publish words from the man himself.
“Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.”
“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.”
“If you always put a limit 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.”
“As you think, so shall you become.”
“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.”
“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.”
“I always learn something, and that is: to always be your self, express yourself, have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate him.”
“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless- like water. Now you put water into 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.”
“Notice the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”
“Real living is living for others.”
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”
“Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them.”
“Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.”
“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”
“Training is one of the most neglected phases of athletics. Too much time is given to the development of skill and too little to the development of the individual for participation. Jeet Kune Do ultimately is not a matter of petty techniques but of highly developed spirituality and physique.”
“It is not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”
“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.”
“All types of knowledge ultimately lead to self-knowledge.”
“I have not invented a "new style," composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from "this" method or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see "ourselves". . . Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of. Either you understand or you don't, and that is that. 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. Jeet Kune-Do is simply the direct expression of one's feelings with the minimum of movements and energy. The closer to the true way of Kung Fu, the less wastage of expression there is. Finally, a Jeet Kune Do man who says Jeet Kune Do is exclusively Jeet Kune Do is simply not with it. He is still hung up on his self-closing resistance, in this case anchored down to reactionary pattern, and naturally is still bound by another modified pattern and can move within its limits. He has not digested the simple fact that truth exists outside all molds; pattern and awareness is never exclusive. Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back.”
