12 Bruce Lee Quotes on Mastery

Bruce Lee quotes on mastery

15. Even today, I dare not say that I have reached a state of achievement. I'm still learning, for learning is boundless.

88. Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I've understood the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. The height of cultivation is really nothing special. It is merely simplicity; the ability to express the utmost with the minimum. It is the halfway cultivation that leads to ornamentation. Jeet Kune-Do is basically a sophisticated fighting style stripped to its essentials.

94. Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing.

97. 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.

99. I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves.

101. I'm not a master, I'm a student-master, meaning that I have the knowledge of a master and the expertise of a master, but I'm still learning, So I'm a student-master. I don't believe in the word master, I consider the master as such when they close the casket.

120. Learn the principle, abide by the principle, and dissolve the principle. In short, enter a mold without being caged in it. Obey the principle without being bound by it. LEARN, MASTER AND ACHIEVE!!!

124. Mere technical knowledge is only the beginning of Kung Fu, to master it, one must enter into the spirit of it.

143. The height of cultivation runs to simplicity. Halfway cultivation runs to ornamentation.

144. The highest technique is to have no technique. My technique is a result of your technique; my movement is a result of your movement. A good JKD man does not oppose force or give way completely. He is pliable as a spring; he is the complement and not the opposition to his opponent's strength. He has no technique; he makes his opponent's technique his technique. He has no design; he makes opportunity his design. One should not respond to circumstance with artificial and 'wooden' prearrangement. Your action should be like the immediacy of a shadow adapting to its moving object. Your task is simply to complete the other half of the oneness spontaneously.

186. When he could do push ups on his thumbs and push ups with 250lbs on his back, he moved on to other exercises.

195. I wanted to do in boxing what Bruce Lee was able to do in the martial arts. Lee was an artist and, like him, I try to get beyond the fundamentals of my sport. I want my fights to be seen as plays.