Here are some of his sayings - sayings he believed in and lived.
1. Our lack of self-awareness that makes us look to others to tell us who we are. Learning not to do that is one of life's hardest, most important lessons.
2. The maintenance of self-esteem is a continuous task that taxes all of the individual’s power and inner resources.
Lee examines the crucial difference between pride and self-esteem:
Pride is a sense of worth derived from something that is not part of us, while self-esteem derives from the potentialities and achievements of self. For instance, we are proud when we identify ourselves with an imaginary self, a leader, a holy cause, a collective body of possessions. There is fear and intolerance in pride; it is insensitive and uncompromising. The less promise and potency in the self, the more imperative is the need for pride. The core of pride is self-rejection. Self-esteem, therefore, has to be continuously kept up and sustained.
3. Lee encourages people to strive for honest self-expression in alignment with their mind, body, and spirit.
“ALWAYS BE YOURSELF. EXPRESS YOURSELF. HAVE FAITH IN YOURSELF.”
4. When there is freedom from mechanical conditioning, there is simplicity. The classical man is just a bundle of routine, ideas and tradition. If you follow the classical pattern, you understand the routine, the tradition, the shadow — but ---- you are not understanding yourself.
5. Awareness (of your surroundings) is without choice, without demand, without anxiety --- in that state of mind, there is perception. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion.
6. There is no such thing as maturity. There is instead an ever-evolving process of maturing, because, when there is a maturity, there is a conclusion and a cessation. That’s the end. That’s when the coffin is closed. You might be deteriorating physically in the long process of aging, but your personal process of daily discovery is ongoing. You continue to learn more and more about yourself every day.
7. Change is from inner to outer. — We start by dissolving our attitude not by altering outer conditions.