Bruce Lee to us MMA fighters is highly regarded as the godfather of MMA. In his ground breaking book the Tao of Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee identified and combined most popular martial arts styles to essentially form the first MMA handbook. It was simply revolutionary for it’s time and as far as I’m concerned it’s still a must read. Bruce Lee’s views and understanding of the martial arts wasn’t bound to stylistic conformity. He believed in a realistic simplicity. For instance, if your opponent was weak in any particular area you should exploit it.
Bruce Lee was a true renaissance man from his artwork to his teaching. His practices are still taught and his writing are still being read. He philosophy and teachings have reverberated and practically created the MMA world we live in today. We’ve compiled some of our favorite Bruce Lee quotes to provide you with a little inspiration.
“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.”
“If you always put 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.”
“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.”
“Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.”
“As you think, so shall you become.”
“Simplicity is the key to brilliance”
“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.”
“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.””
“Forget about winning and losing, forget about pride and pain”
“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not you go out and look for a successfull personality an duplicate it.”
“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 that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”
“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”
“Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.”
“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.”
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”
“The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”
