"The key to liberation is within. — Each man binds himself; the fetters are ignorance, laziness, preoccupation with self, and fear. He must liberate himself, while accepting the fact that we are of this world, so that 'In summer we sweat; in winter we shiver.'"

"It is not, 'I am doing this,' but rather, an inner realization that 'this is happening through me,' or 'it is doing this for me.' The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action."

"Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life. Do not be concerned with escaping safely -- lay your life before him."

"What is defeat? Nothing but education, nothing but the first step to something better."

"Walk on."

"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."

"The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination."

"If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of."

"To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is."

"The height of cultivation runs to simplicity. Halfway cultivation runs to ornamentation. This is the problem of ripening. This ripening is the progressive integration of the individual with his being, his essence. This is possible only through self-exploration in free expression and not in imitative repetition of imposed patterns."

"Jeet Kune Do does not beat around the bush. It does not take winding detours. It follows a straight line to the objective. Simplicity is the shortest distance between two points."

"It is not daily increase but daily decrease — hack away the unessential! The closer to the source, the less wastage there is."

"Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail."

"Bring the mind into sharp focus and make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere. The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes and even ordinary thought itself."

"When you're talking about real fighting with no rules... well then, baby, you better train every part of your body. And when you do punch, I mean you gotta put the whole hip into it. And snap it, and get all your energy in there. And make this into a weapon."

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."

"For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime."

"Observe what is with undivided awareness. Can you look at a situation without naming it? Naming it, making it a word, causes fear."

"My life it seems is a life of self-examination: a self-peeling of my self, bit by bit, day by day. More and more it’s becoming simple to me as a human being [as] more and more I search [within] myself."

"To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Relationship is a process of self-revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself—to be is to be related."

"All martial arts is simply an honest expression of one's body – with a lot of deception in between."

"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."

"All types of knowledge, ultimately mean self knowledge."

"Most people only exist for their image. That's why some people have a void, because they are constantly expending their energy on how they appear to others, instead of realizing that their energy should be directed toward their own self-actualization."

"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."

"It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials."

"Set patterns, incapable of adaptability, of pliability, only offer a better cage. Truth is outside of all patterns."

"I do not believe in styles anymore. I mean, I do not believe that there is such a thing as, like, a Chinese way of fighting or a Japanese way of fighting or whatever way of fighting."

"Using no way as way; having no limitation as limitation."

"When one has reached maturity in this art, one will have the formless form. It is like the dissolving or thawing of ice into water that can shape itself to any structure."

"To accept defeat — to learn to die — is to be liberated from it. Once you accept, you are free to flow and to harmonize. Fluidity is the way to an empty mind."

"If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo."

"The idea is that flowing water never goes stale, so just keep on flowing."

"Possessed of courage but devoid of morality, a gentleman will make trouble; a small man will be a brigand."

"A man devoid of constancy will not make a shaman or a doctor."

"Love your fellow men; know your fellow men."

"If one learns from others but does not think, one will be bewildered; if one thinks but does not learn from others, one will be in peril."

"Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar?"

"There is one single thread binding my way together."

"If he is correct in his person, affairs will prosper without orders being given."

"If xiao means nothing more than providing for parents, even dogs and horses do that; xiao does not exist without genuine respect."

"To be fond of something is better than merely to know it, and to find joy in it is better than merely to be fond of it."

"It is not the failures of others to appreciate your abilities that should trouble you, but rather your failure to appreciate theirs."

"Guide them by virtue, keep them in line with the rites, and they will reform themselves."

"To say you know when you know, and to say you do not when you do not, that is knowledge."

"The gentleman is easy of mind, while the small man is always full of anxiety."

"At fifteen I set my heart on learning; at thirty I took my stand; at forty I came to be free from doubts."

"Even when walking in the company of two other men, I am bound to be able to learn from them."

"The gentleman is anything but casual where speech is concerned."

"Is it not a pleasure, having learned something, to try it out at due intervals?"

"When names are not correct, what is said will not sound reasonable; when what is said does not sound reasonable, affairs will not culminate in success."

"Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire."

"He puts his words into action before allowing his words to follow his action."

"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."

"A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at."

"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water."

"The art of fighting without fighting is to avoid conflict through wisdom and intelligence."

"Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own."