I do not understand Bruce Lee's quote

[kamahlthedruid]

"Cherish the memories of your past misfortunes for they add to your bank of fortitude.(Bruce Lee)"

This doesn't make sense to me because who can love misfortune. I prefer my quote "Adversity adds to your bank of fortitude because overcoming hardship elicits wisdom.(kamahlthedruid)"

Edited April 21, 2010 by kamahlthedruid

[GeoGiant]

If a misfortune adds to your fortitude then you've learned from that mistake. We will all experience misfortunes, not all of us will learn from these experiences.

[Lupin1]

idk... Even if no wisdom or overcoming was involved, memories of misfortune can still add to your fortitude. Look at the Holocaust and the strength the Jewish people gain from that memory even though we didn't overcome it by any act of wisdom or strength on our own part- other people came in and rescued what was left of us. Looking at hardships from the past can give you a different perspective on hardships in the present from which you can gain strength.

[Jay]

Its kinda like mistakes are good.

Only through erradiaction of repeated errors do we improve.

[jsteczko]

Most people are afraid of mistakes. We all have dreams and we want to make them happen. Unfortunately 90% of the population is afraid of failure. Many people want to:

1. Become an actor

2. Or a singer

3. Run their own business.

4. Start training.

But they don't do it. Their fear is telling them that they may not succeed. And so they do nothing.

If one wants to be successful, he must understand that when he makes a mistake he must learn from it. If one thing does not work, maybe something else will. Let's say you want to train martial arts. But then some questions pop up in your mind "what if I get hurt", "I don't have time", "what if my friends don't like it?" etc. And them you do not do anything. And this holds you back.

What Bruce Lee is trying to say it that you should have a goal and go for that goal. Never give up. If one thing does not work, something else will.

I read books written by motivation speakers and they always say that mistakes are a blessing. They make you learn new things. They make you mentally "sexy".

[JAKEHE3078]

Without our misfortunes, or even our fortunes, all of our good memories, and bad, this is what makes us who we are our essence is in our memories, without our memories we have no identity. It is possible to change who we are by learning from the bad, but our essence will always contain even the bad. So embrace you’re misfortunes and learn from them. If you can not learn from them at least, learn how to deal with them, our ethos is all we have.

[bushido_man96]

I think he means "cherish" in a bit of a different way. Yeah, its hard to love misfortunes, but we do learn for them, and it is important to step back after the fact, analyze why the misfortune came about, and then embrace it, and learn and grow and change.

Everyone has a different way of saying things. Some will like it, and some will not. If you like your way better, then go with it. But look at it this way; his way made you think about it.

[username13768]

As Bruce Lee was a philosphy major in college I personally think he was making a play on a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." In other words ... everyone makes mistakes but the best way to deal with it is to learn from them and move forward.

[sensei8]

Learn from your mistakes so that you'll not repeat them. Cherish the things that you've learnt from your mistakes, hopefully, they've made you a better person.

[JiuJitsuNation]

AS I read the quote I saw myself training and making mistakes that either embarrassed me, made me miserable or both. After ward if I put it in perspective it made me stronger. Not always better, but always stronger.