13 Powerful Quotes from Ronda Rousey’s Autobiography My Fight / Your Fight
Get inside the mind of a champion. These 13 quotes from Ronda Rousey’s autobiography show what it really takes to fight—and win—at the highest level.
Bruce Lee
Bio
Bruce Jun Fan Lee was born in San Francisco in the hour and the year of the Dragon, a powerful symbol in Chinese astrology and a strong omen of the life he was to live.
Raised in Hong Kong, Bruce began diligently studying Chinese gung fu at the age of 13. He soon realized that the value of martial arts training was found in the confidence it instilled instead of the need to defend one’s honor through fighting.
During that time, he also developed interests in dancing and acting. The graceful movements he’d mastered in martial arts lent themselves to him being a terrific dancer, and Bruce’s early love of acting led to appearances in 20 films before leaving Hong Kong.
In 1959, at the age of 18 with $100 in his pocket, Bruce headed back to San Francisco. In the years that followed, he majored in philosophy at University of Washington, supported himself as a dance instructor and gung fu teacher, met and married his wife Linda, and opened multiple martial arts schools on the west coast.
Fate stepped in when Bruce’s otherworldly gung fu skills collided with an opportunity to return to acting in the 1966 TV series “The Green Hornet”. The birth of his two children, film roles catapulting him to success, writing, directing and developing his own martial art of “Jeet Kune Do” continued to fill his years until 1973, when he died in Hong Kong from an allergic reaction to a pain medication. Lee was 32.
The actions of the Bruce Lee Foundation continue to ensure Bruce Lee remains one of the most relevant sources of inspiration, motivation, and honest self-expression to millions around the globe.
To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.
Advanced skills are the basics mastered.
Insight is not a quality that comes naturally, rather it is a characteristic that is nurtured through intelligent decision-making. It was through the process of applying his intelligence that Bruce developed deep insights into living the Tao of gung fu. He made passionate inquiry into every aspect of living the martial way, he respected traditional beliefs, but was not bound by unexamined tradition, he created his own philosophical outlook on life, and lived it and breathed it every moment of every day—
Martial arts are ultimately self-knowledge. A punch or a kick is not to knock the hell out of the guy in front, but to knock the hell out of your ego, your fears, and hang-ups.
If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
When you start to learn it, you will find that it is awkward to you. That is because a good technique includes quick changes, great variety and speed. It may be a system of reversals much like a concept of God and the devil. In the speed of events, which one is really in charge? Do they change places with lightning speed? The Chinese believe so. To put the heart of the martial arts in your own heart and have it be a part of you means total comprehension and the use of a free style. When you have that, you will know that there are no limits.
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.
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool—shun him. He who knows not and knows that he knows not is simple—teach him. He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep—awaken him. He who knows and knows that he knows is wise—follow him.
The good man wins a victory and then stops; he will not resort to acts of violent conquest. He does not boast, nor does he seek to triumph or show arrogance. He wins because he has no other choice. After his victory, he will not be overbearing.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and 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.
Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will become clear of itself.
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. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Some martial arts are very popular—real crowd-pleasers—because they look good and have smooth techniques. But beware. They are like wine that has been watered down. A diluted wine is not real wine, not good wine—hardly the genuine article. Some martial arts don’t look as good, but you know they have a kick, a tang, a genuine taste. They are like olives; the taste may be strong and bittersweet, but the flavor lasts. You cultivate a taste for them. No one ever developed a taste for diluted wine.
The empty-mindedness of chi sao applies to all activities we may perform, such as dancing. If the dancer has any idea at all of displaying his art well, he ceases to be a good dancer, for his mind stops with every movement he goes through. In all things, it is important to forget your mind and become one with the work at hand. When the mind is tied up, it feels inhibited in every move it makes, and nothing will be accomplished with any sense of spontaneity. The wheel revolves when it is not too tightly attached to the axle. When it is too tight, it will never move on. As the Zen saying goes: 'Into a soul absolutely free from thoughts and emotion, even the tiger finds no room to insert its fierce claws.' In chi sao, the mind is devoid of all fear, inferiority complexes, vicious feelings, etc., and is free from all forms of attachment. It is master of itself; it knows no hindrances, no inhibitions, no stoppages, no clogging, no stickiness. It then follows its own course like water; it is like the wind that blows where it lists.
Yielding will overcome anything superior to itself; its strength is boundless.
Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted by reality.
All types of knowledge, ultimately leads to self-knowledge.