“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)
Quotes from Striking Thoughts
“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)
“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)
“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)
“To be humble to superiors is duty; to equals is courtesy; to inferiors is nobleness; and to all, safety!”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 55)
“Oftentimes people come up to me and ask, ‘Bruce, are you really that good?’ I say, ‘Well, if I tell you I’m good, probably you will say I’m boasting; but if I tell you I’m no good, you’ll know I’m lying.’ I have the absolute confidence not to be number two, but then I have enough sense also to realize that there can be no number one.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 54)
“Recognizing the influence of my subconscious mind over my power of will, I shall take care to submit to it a clear and definite picture of my Major Purpose in life and all minor purposes leading to my major purpose, and I shall keep this picture constantly before my subconscious mind by repeating it daily!”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 41)
“Man’s mind and his behavior are one, his inner thought and outer expression cannot contradict each other. Therefore a man should set up his right principle, and this right mind (principle) will influence his action.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 40)
“Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 31)
“The function and duty of a human being, a ‘quality’ human being, that is, is the sincere and honest development of potential and self-actualization.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 28)
“To understand and live now, there must be dying to everything of yesterday. Die continually to every newly gained experience—be in a state of choiceless awareness of WHAT IS.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 14)
“You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 13)
“We are always in a process of becoming and NOTHING is fixed. Have no rigid system in you, and you’ll be flexible to change with the ever changing. OPEN yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the TOTAL OPENNESS OF THE LIVING MOMENT. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 13)
“The root is the fulcrum on which will rest the expression of your soul; the root is the ‘starting point’ of all natural manifestation. If the root is right so will be all its manifestation. It cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well-ordered.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 12)