Bruce Lee (November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a martial arts master, actor, and philosopher. Born in San Francisco, he trained in martial arts in Hong Kong beginning at age 13 and later became a true world-wide icon. Lee’s martial arts philosophy incorporated elements from many different styles and he was reluctant to stick to only one discipline. He took what he felt was the best of various disciplines and created his own called Jeet Kune Do, which emphasized simplicity and practicality. He spent time teaching as well as giving martial arts demonstrations.
Lee’s approach was built by hand, out of his own daily work. He was born in San Francisco while his parents were touring with a Cantonese opera company, raised in Hong Kong, where he acted in films as a child, and at thirteen he took up Wing Chun under Yip Man. In 1959, at eighteen, he arrived back in the United States with about $100 in his pocket. In Seattle he waited tables and studied philosophy at the University of Washington while teaching a widening circle of students in borrowed spaces. In Oakland he opened a school with James Yimm Lee, trained alongside boxers, wrestlers, and fencers, and slowly stopped believing in inherited forms. By 1967 he had named what he was building: Jeet Kune Do. A back injury in 1970 put him in bed for months, and the writing from that stretch, laid over years of notebooks, became the core of the book published after his death as the Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
Lee became an actor known to American audiences via his role in the 1966/1967 show The Green Hornet. He later helped set the standard for martial arts movies with classics such as Fist of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972), and Enter the Dragon (1973). Enter the Dragon is estimated to have made $400 million worldwide ($2 billion adjusted for inflation in 2022 dollars). Lee became an international star on the rise before his untimely death. He inspired millions to take an interest in martial arts and influenced many famous fighters, actors and filmmakers such as Jackie Chan, Quentin Tarantino, John Woo, Conor McGregor, Anderson Silva, and Manny Pacquiao to name just a few.
Lee wrote extensively and is considered a modern philosopher by many. He strongly believed in the continuous pursuit of personal growth and improvement. He is famous for saying, “be water,” as in be adaptable, formless, and adjust to your circumstances as needed – don’t conform to one rigid ideology or worldview. He focused on discipline, perseverance, and a positive mental mindset. He was a prolific writer and teacher, publishing many works himself, but there are also many compilations of his unofficial teachings through letters, speeches, and other publicly available information.
Lee tragically died at age 32 from health complications, but he had a profound impact on the world during his short life. He is considered the most influential martial artist of all time and helped bridge the racial and cultural gap between the Western and Eastern countries. He left a lasting legacy that continues to inspire people today from all walks of life.
Core Ideas
- Be like water. Keep no fixed shape; adjust to the object and find a way around or through it.
- Use only what works. Borrow from any style or source, test it, and throw away the rest.
- Practice one thing deeply. One kick practiced 10,000 times outweighs 10,000 kicks practiced once.
- Subtract daily. Progress is a daily decrease, hacking away at what is inessential.
- Express yourself honestly. Know yourself, refuse self-set limits, and move past plateaus instead of resting on them.
Bruce Lee Quotes
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
“Knowing is not enough – we must apply. Willing is not enough – we must do.”
“True refinement seeks simplicity.”
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and 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.”
— Longstreet, “The Way of the Intercepting Fist” (1971)
“For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime.”
“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”
“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.”
— Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975)
“The doubters said, ‘Man can not fly.’ The doers said, ‘Maybe, but we’ll try,’ and finally soared in the morning glow while non-believers watched from below.”
“Choose the positive. You have a choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.”
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.”
“Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier.”
“If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
“Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are weeds that strangle confidence.”
“Be happy, but never satisfied.”
“It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.”
— Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975)
“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”
Bruce Lee Books
“Tao of Jeet Kune Do” – by Bruce Lee. His own notes on fighting and philosophy, drawn from his notebooks and published two years after his death; the primary text nearly all of his famous lines flow from.
“The Warrior Within: The Philosophies of Bruce Lee” – by John R. Little. Little, who edited Lee’s papers, lays out the philosophy behind the fighting: self-knowledge, simplicity, and honest self-expression.
“Bruce Lee Letters of the Dragon: The Original 1958-1973 Correspondence” – by Bruce Lee, edited by John Little. His own letters across the whole arc, the philosophy taking shape in real time.
“Bruce Lee: A Life” – by Matthew Polly. The full modern biography, from Hong Kong child actor to the run of films that made him a worldwide star.
“Be Water, My Friend” – by Shannon Lee. His daughter takes the teaching off the mat and into ordinary life, which is where he always meant it to work.
You can browse all of Bruce Lee’s quotes in the SAGE QUOTE LIBRARY. For additional information, quotes, and books on similarly relevant famous individuals, please visit the SAGE PROFILES page on the site. Please also visit the SAGE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS page for many other great reads sure to add to your worldly wisdom. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
