I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

Meaning of the quote

You don't have to try to be what other people want you to be. And other people don't have to try to be what you want them to be. We're all here to be our own selves, not to match someone else's ideas about how we should live.

About Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee was a legendary Hong Kong-American martial artist and actor who founded the hybrid martial arts philosophy of Jeet Kune Do. He is considered one of the most influential martial artists of all time and helped popularize martial arts films in the 1970s, bridging the gap between East and West. Lee had a diverse martial arts background and went on to star in several iconic Hong Kong and Hollywood martial arts films.

More about the author

More quotes from Bruce Lee

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.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

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

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

Obey the principles without being bound by them.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

The possession of anything begins in the mind.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

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

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

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.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

Real living is living for others.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

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

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

As you think, so shall you become.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.

Bruce Lee

Chinese-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973)