Sourcing Bruce Lee

   Did Bruce Lee Say something about the best fighter is not a Boxer, Karate, or Judo Man? Introduction I've seen the image above (without my annotations) circulating on social media. I decided to investigate. The quote is supposedly "The best fighter is not a Boxer, Karate or Judo man. The best fighter is someone who can adapt on any style. He kicks too good for a Boxer, throws too good for a Karate man, and punches too good for a Judo man." You can easily find it at generally unsubstantiated "quote" sites like so-called "quotable quotes" from Bruce Lee on Goodreads. I won't link it here because I don't need to reinforce its algorithmic value. The Sources I checked the Bruce Lee Library and other sources and found nothing at all like this quote. In fact, Bruce Lee barely used the term "best fighter" at all, as far as I could determine. Only in the book Bruce Lee: The Tao of Gung Fu did I find something attributed to Bruce that used...

  How amazing is this?! I just bought a copy of Who Wrote the Tao? by James Bishop from his web site . This interview was informative as well.  I also bought his earlier 2004 book  Bruce Lee: Dynamic Becoming in Kindle format.  Finally, Dr. Bishop is publishing videos on the fact that the Bruce Lee social media account refuses to properly attribute material by others.  This is a great time to be a fan of accuracy in martial arts history and biography.

 Did Bruce Lee say something about glorious failure? Introduction Recently I came across a social media post that claimed to quote Bruce Lee. The presumed quote was: "Don't fear failure. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail." This seemed suspicious, so I decided to investigate. The Sources Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living ; Bruce Lee and John Little, 2000 I checked the  Bruce Lee Library and other sources  and found something like it in  Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living , which is volume 7 in Tuttle's Bruce Lee Library. "Don't fear failure. -Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail." The italicized portion means that the editor, John Little, created that sentence. The "In great attempts" sentence matches the second sentence in the presumed quote. So, did Bruce Lee invent it, or did he copy it? The Search An easy  Google Books search  revea...

  Did Bruce Lee say being calm is a super power? Since I just spent hours working on a Bruce Lee post for the Martial History Team , I will make this answer quick: there is no evidence that Bruce Lee said "being calm is a super power." Bruce Lee did speak of the need to be calm in various situations, such as when interacting with one's spouse. A book from the Bruce Lee Library titled Striking Thoughts containing some of his more popular sayings offers plenty of matches if one searches for the word calm. For example: "Wait in the calm strength of patience - he that is strong should guard it with tenderness." "Be a calm beholder of what is happening around you." "To meditate means to realise the imperturbability of one's original nature. Meditation means to be free from all phenomena, and calmness means to be internally unperturbed. There will be calmness when one is free from external objects and is not perturbed." "True mastery tra...

  Where did Bruce Lee get the idea for the "fighting without fighting" scene in Enter the Dragon?  Introduction One of my favorite scenes in Bruce Lee's 1973 movie Enter the Dragon takes place during the journey to Han's Island. Another martial artist named "Parsons" who has been bullying the boat's crew confronts Lee. Was this an invention of Mr. Lee, or did he get the idea from someone else? Note that although this is my own investigation, the following basic story has been known for decades.  The Scene Enter the Dragon, 1973 You can watch the scene online , or read the script that follows. Parsons: Do I bother you? Lee: Don't waste yourself. Parsons: What's your style? Lee: My style? You can call it the art of fighting without fighting. Parsons: The art of fighting without fighting? Show me some of it. Lee: Later. Alright. Don't you think we need more room? Parsons: Where else? Lee: That island. On the beach. We can take this boat. Parsons...

  Did Bruce Lee Say Something About Swimming?  Introduction A fellow member of the Martial Arts Studies Facebook group asked for a source of the following supposed Bruce Lee quote: "If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you." It appears in the usual meme and quote locations on the Internet, so I volunteered to track it down. The Sources Bruce Lee: The Tao of Gung Fu , Bruce Lee and John Little, 1997 I checked the  Bruce Lee Library and other sources  and found something like it in volume 2,  Bruce Lee: The Tao of Gung Fu: A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art . It is from the foreword by Bruce's student Taky Kimura. It reads: "Bruce preached to us about the cold facts of life: for example, if you want to become a swimmer, you cannot do so on dry land, you must enter the water. " Bruce Lee: Words of the Dragon , Bruce Lee and John Little, 1997 I also found something similar in volume 1,  Bru...

  Did Bruce Lee say "Mighty is he who conquers himself"?  Introduction I came across this quote via the various official Bruce Lee social media sites. I decided to see if Bruce Lee actually said it.  The Sources Bruce Lee: The Tao of Gung Fu , Bruce Lee and John Little, 1997 I checked the Bruce Lee Library and other sources and found it in volume 2, Bruce Lee: The Tao of Gung Fu: A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art . It reads: "To see oneself is to be clear of right. Mighty is he who conquers himself." I suspected that it was a copy from somewhere else, so I searched for the origin. The Origin The Painted Veil,  W. Somerset Maugham, 1925 It was fairly easy to find the source for the quote. I first located it in a March 2015 blog post by Stephen N. Greenleaf titled The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham . He offers the following excerpt from the book The Painted Veil : "H who strives after tenderness can become even as a little child. Gentleness brings v...