Bruce Lee's quote

Very similar quotes appear in a couple of Lee's works:

Absorb what is useful. - Research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own.

• Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
  Part VII - The Process of Becoming - Self-Expression (p.176)

<! >

This Book is Dedicated to the Free, Creative Martial Artist

Take what is useful and develop from there.

• Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975)

However, Bruce Lee said and wrote many things very similar to this thought, and to some extent it characterises the ideology of Jeet Kune Do. See this quote from the same book (p24 and worded slightly differently on p12):

Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and, since it has no style, Jeet Kune Do fits in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any technique or means which serves its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores.

Original quote source

Note that Bruce read widely and took aphorisms from many different sources, incorporating them into his writings on his own martial arts and philosophy. The idea behind this quote is ancient,¹ but this specific wording appears to come from Mao Zedong:

All military laws and military theories which are in the nature of principles are the experience of past wars summed up by people in former days or in our own times. We should seriously study these lessons, paid for in blood, which are a heritage of past wars. That is one point. But there is another. We should put these conclusions to the test of our own experience, assimilating what is useful, rejecting what is useless, and adding what is specifically our own. The latter is very important, for otherwise we cannot direct a war.

• Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War (Dec. 1936)

Notes:

^{1. The Eudemian Ethics (Book VII, Chapter I), Aristotle}

Source of quote

Bruce read widely and took aphorisms from many different sources, incorporating them into his writings on his own martial arts and philosophy. The idea behind this quote is ancient,¹ but this specific wording appears to come from Mao Zedong:

All military laws and military theories which are in the nature of principles are the experience of past wars summed up by people in former days or in our own times. We should seriously study these lessons, paid for in blood, which are a heritage of past wars. That is one point. But there is another. We should put these conclusions to the test of our own experience, assimilating what is useful, rejecting what is useless, and adding what is specifically our own. The latter is very important, for otherwise we cannot direct a war.

• Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War (Dec. 1936)

Similar quotes in Bruce Lee's writings

Very similar quotes appear in a couple of Lee's works:

Absorb what is useful. - Research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own.

• Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
  Part VII - The Process of Becoming - Self-Expression (p.176)

<! >

This Book is Dedicated to the Free, Creative Martial Artist

Take what is useful and develop from there.

• Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975)

However, Bruce Lee said and wrote many things very similar to this thought, and to some extent it characterises the ideology of Jeet Kune Do. See this quote from the same book (p.24 and worded slightly differently on p.12):

Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and, since it has no style, Jeet Kune Do fits in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any technique or means which serves its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores.

Notes:

^{1. The Eudemian Ethics (Book VII, Chapter I), Aristotle}

Bruce Lee's quote

Very similar quotes appear in a couple of Lee's works:

Absorb what is useful. - Research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own.

• Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
  Part VII - The Process of Becoming - Self-Expression (p.176)

<! >

This Book is Dedicated to the Free, Creative Martial Artist

Take what is useful and develop from there.

• Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975, 1994 reprint)

However, Bruce Lee said and wrote many things very similar to this thought, and to some extent it characterises the ideology of Jeet Kune Do. See this quote from the same book (p24 and worded slightly differently on p12):

Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and, since it has no style, Jeet Kune Do fits in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any technique or means which serves its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores.

Original quote source

Note that Bruce read widely and took aphorisms from many different sources, incorporating them into his writings on his own martial arts and philosophy. The idea behind this quote is a very old one,^{1 2 3} but this specific wording appears to come from Mao Zedong:

All military laws and military theories which are in the nature of principles are the experience of past wars summed up by people in former days or in our own times. We should seriously study these lessons, paid for in blood, which are a heritage of past wars. That is one point. But there is another. We should put these conclusions to the test of our own experience, assimilating what is useful, rejecting what is useless, and adding what is specifically our own. The latter is very important, for otherwise we cannot direct a war.

• Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War (Dec. 1936)

Notes:

<sup>1. The Eudemian Ethics (Book VII, Chapter I), Aristotle
2. A Summary of the Law and Practice of Real Actions (1824)
3. The Spectator (Vol. 61) (1888)</sup>

Bruce Lee's quote

Very similar quotes appear in a couple of Lee's works:

Absorb what is useful. - Research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own.

• Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
  Part VII - The Process of Becoming - Self-Expression (p.176)

<! >

This Book is Dedicated to the Free, Creative Martial Artist

Take what is useful and develop from there.

• Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975)

However, Bruce Lee said and wrote many things very similar to this thought, and to some extent it characterises the ideology of Jeet Kune Do. See this quote from the same book (p24 and worded slightly differently on p12):

Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and, since it has no style, Jeet Kune Do fits in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any technique or means which serves its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores.

Original quote source

Note that Bruce read widely and took aphorisms from many different sources, incorporating them into his writings on his own martial arts and philosophy. The idea behind this quote is ancient,¹ but this specific wording appears to come from Mao Zedong:

All military laws and military theories which are in the nature of principles are the experience of past wars summed up by people in former days or in our own times. We should seriously study these lessons, paid for in blood, which are a heritage of past wars. That is one point. But there is another. We should put these conclusions to the test of our own experience, assimilating what is useful, rejecting what is useless, and adding what is specifically our own. The latter is very important, for otherwise we cannot direct a war.

• Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War (Dec. 1936)

Notes:

^{1. The Eudemian Ethics (Book VII, Chapter I), Aristotle}

Bruce Lee's quote

Very similar quotes appear in a couple of Lee's works:

Absorb what is useful. - Research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own.

• Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
  Part VII - The Process of Becoming - Self-Expression (p.176)

<! >

This Book is Dedicated to the Free, Creative Martial Artist

Take what is useful and develop from there.

• Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975, 1994 reprint)

However, Bruce Lee said and wrote many things very similar to this thought, and to some extent it characterises the ideology of Jeet Kune Do. See this quote from the same book (p24 and worded slightly differently on p12):

Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and, since it has no style, Jeet Kune Do fits in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any technique or means which serves its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores.

Original quote source

Note that Bruce read widely and took aphorisms from many different sources, incorporating them into his writings on his own martial arts and philosophy. The idea behind this quote is a very old one, but this specific wording appears to come from Mao Zedong:

All military laws and military theories which are in the nature of principles are the experience of past wars summed up by people in former days or in our own times. We should seriously study these lessons, paid for in blood, which are a heritage of past wars. That is one point. But there is another. We should put these conclusions to the test of our own experience, assimilating what is useful, rejecting what is useless, and adding what is specifically our own. The latter is very important, for otherwise we cannot direct a war.

• Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War (Dec. 1936)

Bruce Lee's quote

Very similar quotes appear in a couple of Lee's works:

Absorb what is useful. - Research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own.

• Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
  Part VII - The Process of Becoming - Self-Expression (p.176)

<! >

This Book is Dedicated to the Free, Creative Martial Artist

Take what is useful and develop from there.

• Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975, 1994 reprint)

However, Bruce Lee said and wrote many things very similar to this thought, and to some extent it characterises the ideology of Jeet Kune Do. See this quote from the same book (p24 and worded slightly differently on p12):

Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and, since it has no style, Jeet Kune Do fits in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any technique or means which serves its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores.

Original quote source

Note that Bruce read widely and took aphorisms from many different sources, incorporating them into his writings on his own martial arts and philosophy. The idea behind this quote is a very old one,^{1 2 3} but this specific wording appears to come from Mao Zedong:

All military laws and military theories which are in the nature of principles are the experience of past wars summed up by people in former days or in our own times. We should seriously study these lessons, paid for in blood, which are a heritage of past wars. That is one point. But there is another. We should put these conclusions to the test of our own experience, assimilating what is useful, rejecting what is useless, and adding what is specifically our own. The latter is very important, for otherwise we cannot direct a war.

• Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War (Dec. 1936)

Notes:

<sup>1. The Eudemian Ethics (Book VII, Chapter I), Aristotle
2. A Summary of the Law and Practice of Real Actions (1824)
3. The Spectator (Vol. 61) (1888)</sup>