“What IS is more important than WHAT SHOULD BE. To many people are looking at "what is" from a position of thinking "what should be."”

—  Bruce Lee

Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 16

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What IS is more important than WHAT SHOULD BE. To many people are looking at "what is" from a position of thinking "wha…" by Bruce Lee?
Bruce Lee photo
Bruce Lee 193
Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and f… 1940–1973

Related quotes

Ursula Goodenough photo

“What scares me? The way the world is going. People seem to think that development is more important than sustainability. That fundamentalism is more important than openness. That racial differences should dictate political decisions. That a person's sexuality is somebody else's business.”

Ursula Goodenough (1943) American biologist

Uncommon Knowledge (2005)

Eugéne Ionesco photo

“It isn't what people think that's important, but the reason they think what they think.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 468; also in The Quantum Dice (1993) by Leonid Ivanovich Ponomarev, p. 50

Saddam Hussein photo

“Hussein stated it is not only important what people say or think about him now but what they think in the future, 500 or 1000 years from now. The most important thing, however, is what God thinks. If God believes something, He will convince the people to agree. If God does not agree, it does not matter what the people think.”

Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) Iraqi politician and President

Interview by FBI Senior Special Agent George L. Piro (7 February 2004); National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 279 http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB279/index.htm.
Attributed

Oscar Wilde photo

“Now, nothing should be able to harm a man except himself. Nothing should be able to rob a man at all. What a man really has, is what is in him. What is outside of him should be a matter of no importance.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

W. H. Auden photo

“It's frightfully important for a writer to be his age, not to be younger or older than he is. One might ask, "What should I write at the age of sixty-four," but never, "What should I write in 1940."”

W. H. Auden (1907–1973) Anglo-American poet

Source: Paris Review interview (1972), p. 250

Errol Morris photo

“Listening to what people were saying wasn't even important. But it was important to look as if you were listening to what people were saying. Actually, listening to what people are saying, to me, interferes with looking as if you were listening to what people are saying.”

Errol Morris (1948) American filmmaker and writer

Source: Predilections by Mark Singer http://www.errolmorris.com/content/profile/singer_predilections.html

Neil deGrasse Tyson photo

“Knowing how things work is important, but I think that's an incomplete view of what science literacy is or, at least, should be. Science literacy is an outlook. It's more of a lens through which you observe what goes on around you.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

Global Ideas from Pluto's Challenger (May 21, 2009)

“A book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Education of a Wandering Man

Tracy Chapman photo

“I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in…That's what everyone should do with their lives…stand up for what they believe in, or try to do some good in the world. I don't think artists have a greater responsibility than anyone else.”

Tracy Chapman (1964) American singer-songwriter

On how artist expression can be a form of political activism in “A militant mellows” https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/sep/28/artsfeatures.popandrock in The Guardian (27 Sep 2002)

Larry Wall photo

“But I know what's important to me, and what isn't. And I think I know what people can get used to, and what they can even learn to like. (It just takes some people longer than others. :-)”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

Usenet postings, 1998

Related topics