Sourcing Bruce Lee

Introduction  Wargamer,  https://www.wargamer.com/articles/napoleonic-war-games/ I read the following quote, and as you might expect, it tripped my radar. Bruce Lee supposedly said: "To hell with circumstances. I create opportunities." My question: what are the true origins of this quote? The image above provides a hint, if you're a military history fan. The Authority The most recent "authoritative" source for this quote appears to be the Bruce Lee podcast, episode 74 , with notes published on 28 November 2017. Bruce Lee Podcast 74,  https://brucelee.com/podcast-blog/2017/11/28/74-to-hell-with-circumstances The Oldest Online Version My next question is: what is the earliest source we have for Bruce Lee saying this quote, if it indeed exists? The oldest version with the same words that I could retrieve online, with a reliable date, appears in a German language forum, dated 17 February 2007 . The person making the post uses it as his signature:...

Calligraphic 夢語 by Takuan Sōhō (1573-1645), Nomura Art Museum, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan, 1624 This is a brief message to direct readers to a new post I published at Martial History Team , titled Did Takuan Sōhō Write a Famous Quote about Mushin ? When I began my investigation of the issue in question, I wondered if it linked to Bruce Lee. If it did, I would have published the results here. It turned into a much more complicated historical topic, so I published the story at Martial History Team. Enjoy! If you like this article, and might want to learn more about martial arts history in general, visit  Martial History Team , and also check out our  Facebook page ,  Instagram  account, and  Twitter  feed. Be devoted!

I saw a quote attributed to Bruce Lee on social media, and as soon as I read it I knew I was suspicious of its origin. "The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” If you search for those words, you'll encounter a slew of people quoting it and saying Bruce Lee wrote it. Early in my research, I found a story which offered two helpful leads. First, it said that the quote appeared at the end of the mostly mythical 1993 "Dragon" Bruce Lee movie. Sure enough, here it is: Now we have the "sourcing" of this quote to Bruce Lee. I've also seen it attributed to Brandon Lee because of its use in the movie. Second, the article mentioned that this quote was attributed to St. Augustine. Using this new search parameter, I found plenty of other people quoted St. Augustine, an early father of the Catholic Church, as being the author, such as this person . However, I did searches of various repositories of St. Augustine's works...

Introduction Myths abound in the martial arts world. One of the most pervasive is the myth that the late Bruce Lee created the “Kung Fu” television series. Airing from 1972 to 1975, this show on the ABC network and produced by Warner Brothers starred the late David Carradine. Portrayed as a half-Chinese, half-American Shaolin monk, Caine wandered about the American west in the 1870s, helping people and standing up to injustice and repression. Each hour-long episode featured the Zen-centered kung fu expert searching for his half-brother while evading the pursuit of assassins and bounty hunters intent on returning Caine to China to pay for his killing of the royal nephew. In the following edited and augmented excerpt from Bruce Lee: A Life , authoritative Bruce Lee biographer Matthew Polly shares the true story of the creation of the Kung Fu program. The truth is more interesting than the myth, and readers who wish to learn even more about Bruce Lee are encouraged to read Polly’s ...

Episode 60 of the Bruce Lee Podcast covers "choiceless awareness." A simple Google search shows an entire Wikipedia entry on choiceless awareness : Choiceless awareness is posited in philosophy, psychology, and spirituality to be the state of unpremeditated, complete awareness of the present without preference, effort, or compulsion. The term was popularized in mid-20th century by Jiddu Krishnamurti, in whose philosophy it signifies a main theme. The first post for this blog also cited the same philosopher. The Bruce Lee Podcast makes no mention of Jiddu Krishnamurti, although numerous articles discuss his influence on Bruce Lee's personal philosophy. For example: Bruce Lee and Krishnamurti: The Dragon and the Retired Messiah Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Influence on Bruce Lee and Popular Martial Arts Culture Bruce Lee's September 1971 Black Belt magazine article, Liberate Yourself from Classical Karate , contains a section titled "choiceless observation....

I heard this quote on episode 57 of the Bruce Lee podcast . "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.” Also online via  Goodreads  as: "Self-knowledge involves relationship. To know oneself is to study one self in action with another person. Relationship is a process of self evaluation and self revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself - to be is to be related." This is a direct quotation of Jiddu Krishnamurti: " Relationship , surely, is the mirror in which you discover yourself . Without relationship you are not; to be is to be related ; to be related is existence. And you exist only in relationship; otherwise, you do not exist, existence has no meaning. It is not because you think you are that you come into existence. You exist because you are related, and it is the lack of...