Bruce Lee on Limits, Systems, Circumstances, and Expectations

Yesterday was the birthday of Bruce Lee, the martial artist and actor (1940-1973) whose Oriental philosophy did not seem to leave much room for the type of state-interventionist theories we hear in Europe these days…

Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.

I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine.

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.

Circumstances hell! I make circumstances!

Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential.

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.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.