“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination. The good life constitutes a direction selected by the total organism, when there is psychological freedom to move in ANY direction.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 93)
“Remember, I am no teacher; I can merely be a signpost for a traveler who is lost. It is up to you to decide on the direction. All I can offer is an experience but never a conclusion, so even what I have said needs to be thoroughly examined by you. I might be able to help you discover and examine your problem by awakening your awareness of their cause and effect, but I cannot teach you, for I am not a teacher, and I have no style. I don’t believe in a system, nor in a method. And without system, without method, what’s to teach?”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 90)
“A teacher, a good teacher that is, functions as a pointer to truth, but not a giver of truth. He employs a minimum of form to lead his student to the formless. Furthermore, he points out the importance of being able to enter a mold without being imprisoned by it, or to follow the principles without being bound by them.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 90)
“I will play with my [children] and joke with my [children], but business is business. When the subject is a serious one, you don’t go around trying to keep from hurting [their] feelings. You say what must be said and set the rules which must be set without worrying about whether [they] like it or not.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 88)
“The happiness we have today is built on the ordinary life we had before we married. The happiness that is derived from ordinary life lasts longer; like coal, it burns gradually and slowly. The happiness that is derived from excitement is like a brilliant fire—soon it will go out. Many young couples live a very exciting life when they are in love. So, when they marry, and their lives are reduced to calmness and dullness, they will feel impatient and will drink the bitter cup of a sad marriage.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 86)
“Young love is a flame: very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 85)
“The method for health promotion is based on water, as flowing water never grows stale. The idea is not to overdevelop or to overexert, but to normalize the function of the body.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 82)
“Live content with small means; seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion. Be worthy, not respectable, wealthy, not rich; study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 78)
“False science and false religion express their dogma in highly elevated language to make simple people think that they are mysterious, important, and attractive. But this mysterious language is not a sign of wisdom. The wiser a person is, the simpler the language he uses to express his thoughts.”
Lucy Malory, via A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 247)
“I have no religion whatsoever. I believe that life is a process and that man is a self-made product. The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 76)
“To be perfectly frank, I really do not believe in God. If there is a God, he is within. You don’t ask God to give you things, you depend on God for inner theme.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 76)
“I wish neither to possess nor to be possessed. I no longer covet paradise. More important, I no longer fear hell. If you ask me what I will do in heaven, I will say this: Why should I think about something so far away when there are so many things in this life I have not finished learning about?”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 76)
“One hour of honest, serious thinking is more precious than weeks spent in empty talks.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 246)
“I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable. All these and other factors combined, if the circumstances are right, can teach and can lead to rebirth.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead
“You should do goodness without choosing to whom. Good things, once done, will never disappear, even if you forget about them. There is only one way to be happy, and this is a sure way: to do goodness and to share this goodness with others.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 244)
“People normally see you through the very thick lens of their own past. Letting our lives be defined by the valuations/judgments that others place on us, is a quick path to people pleasing and constant dissatisfaction. If you want to do your life justice, then you need to simply be kind, walk gently, have compassion, but above all, live in a way that honors your truth. It is possible to view others without judgment, to see them through a lens of acceptance, but that takes intentional practice and healing work to relieve yourself of the thickness of ego.”
Yung Pueblo
“The math is simple: many people do less than they should. They might be selfish, but it’s likely that they’re struggling with a lack of resources or a story of insufficiency. Either way, in any community or organization, many people contribute less than their peers. Whether it’s splitting a check, getting a project done or making an impact on the culture or a cause, if you want things to get better, the only way is to be prepared to do more than your fair share. Because we need to make up for the folks who don’t.”
Seth Godin, Blog
“Someone told me once that every person has an element of good and an element of bad within him, and that either the good or the bad can be manifested according to the person’s mood. We possess within us two different ways of understanding this world. One is the feeling of being divided, distanced, and alienated from each other; in this state, all things seem gloomy to us. We feel nothing except jealousy, indifference, and hatred. I would like to call the opposite way of understanding the understanding of universal unification. In this state, all people seem very close to us, and all are equal among themselves. This state, therefore, arouses compassion and love in us.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 241)
“I think when a couple marry, they either go into heaven or live in hell. They may live a fairy-tale-like life, or they may suffer a lot. I am a fortunate man. I am fortunate not because my films have broken box-office records in various parts of the world, but because I have a good wife, Linda. She is unsurpassed. Why do I say this? First, I believe a couple should develop a kind of friendship. Linda and I have this kind of friendship. We understand each other, like a pair of good friends. We thus can spend our time together happily. My wife is the luckiest thing that ever happened to me—not The Big Boss.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 66)