Who really said it

The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between 'for' and 'against' is the mind's worst disease

Q: Did Bruce Lee say "The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between 'for' and 'against' is the mind's worst disease"?

No. These are the opening lines of the 'Hsin Hsin Ming' ('On Trust in the Heart'), a 6th-century Chan Buddhist poem attributed to Sengcan. The exact English wording is Arthur Waley's translation, published in Edward Conze's Buddhist Texts Through the Ages (1954). Bruce Lee copied it into his notebooks, and it later appeared in his posthumously published works — but he neither wrote nor originated it.

Not Bruce Lee — it’s the Hsin Hsin Ming of Sengcan Jianzhi Sengcan (Third Zen Patriarch); English by Arthur Waley Sengcan: d. 606 CE · Third Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism

Disputed In copyright

These are the opening lines of the ‘Hsin Hsin Ming’ (‘On Trust in the Heart’), a 6th-century Chan Buddhist poem attributed to Sengcan. The exact English wording is Arthur Waley’s translation ↗, published in Edward Conze’s Buddhist Texts Through the Ages (1954). Bruce Lee copied it into his notebooks, and it later appeared in his posthumously published works — but he neither wrote nor originated it.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between 'for' and 'against' is the mind's worst disease” Not Bruce Lee. It is the opening of the Hsin Hsin Ming, a 6th-century Zen poem attributed to the Third Patriarch Sengcan, in Arthur Waley's 1954 English translation (in Conze, Buddhist Texts Through the Ages). Bruce Lee copied it into his notes, and it later appeared in his posthumous books.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Bruce Lee. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of Arthur Waley / original publisher Philosophical Library (1954 translation)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Jianzhi Sengcan — Third Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism. Theme: "The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between 'for' and 'against' is the mind's worst disease". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Provenance

The real source

Work: Hsin Hsin Ming (Xinxin Ming) — ‘On Trust in the Heart’
Attributed author: Jianzhi Sengcan, Third Chan (Zen) Patriarch (d. 606 CE)
Translation: Arthur Waley, in Buddhist Texts Through the Ages, ed. Edward Conze (New York: Philosophical Library, 1954), pp. 296–298
How Bruce Lee got it: Copied into his personal notes; surfaced in the posthumous Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975) and Striking Thoughts (2000)

The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose; Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference, and Heaven and Earth are set apart; If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is the mind’s worst disease; While the deep meaning is misunderstood, it is useless to meditate on Rest.

The opening of the poem in Arthur Waley’s translation. The lines circulated under Bruce Lee’s name are this passage, lightly re-punctuated into prose.

Hsin Hsin Ming — Arthur Waley translation (Terebess Asia Online)

How we verified this

Wikiquote lists this passage on its Bruce Lee page under “Misattributed” ↗, noting it is actually from the Xinxin Ming of Sengcan.
The Wikiquote entry for Sengcan ↗ gives the identical wording as Arthur Waley’s translation, from Conze’s Buddhist Texts Through the Ages (1954).
The Terebess Asia Online archive ↗ reproduces Waley’s full translation with the citation “Buddhist Texts Through the Ages, Edward Conze (ed.), 1954, pp. 296–298.”
Wikiquote notes the wording also appears in Huston Smith’s The Religions of Man (1958), the popular route by which the Waley rendering reached mid-century readers such as Lee.

In copyright

The 6th-century Chinese original is long in the public domain, but the specific English wording quoted here is Arthur Waley’s translation, first published in 1954 — well after the 1931 U.S. cutoff — and is therefore still in copyright. Public-domain status attaches only to the ancient original, not to this modern rendering.

Fact-check

How Bruce Lee got the credit

Bruce Lee is one of the internet’s biggest magnets for borrowed wisdom. This passage is a genuine, cited quotation — but it is a Zen poem Lee admired and transcribed, not something he authored.

Bruce Lee Misattributed

Lee copied these lines into his personal notes, and they were printed in his posthumously assembled books such as Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975). Readers took the words as his own. Wikiquote files it under “Misattributed” ↗.

The words are the opening of the Hsin Hsin Ming of Sengcan ↗, in Arthur Waley’s 1954 translation ↗ — roughly fourteen centuries before Bruce Lee.

Context

Why it resonates

The Hsin Hsin Ming makes one austere point: the ‘Perfect Way’ is not hard because it is hidden, but because the mind cannot stop preferring — sorting every experience into liked and disliked, for and against. Drop that habit, the poem says, and clarity is already here.

That message dovetailed neatly with Bruce Lee’s own philosophy of fluidity and non-attachment, which is why he transcribed it — and why, once his notebooks were published, the lines were so easily mistaken for his.

“The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is the mind’s worst disease.”

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Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Hsin Hsin Ming — Waley & other translationsterebess.hu

Full Arthur Waley translation with the 1954 Conze citation, alongside other renderings.

Sengcanen.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotations from the Hsin Hsin Ming, crediting Waley’s translation.

Bruce Lee — Misattributeden.wikiquote.org

Lists this passage as misattributed and identifies its true source.

The Religions of Man (1958)archive.org

Huston Smith’s book, a common conduit for the Waley translation into general readership.

Jianzhi Sengcanen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the Third Chan Patriarch traditionally credited with the poem.

Buddhist Texts Through the Ages (Conze, ed.)archive.org

The 1954 anthology where Waley’s translation was published (pp. 296–298).

The Third Zen Patriarch

Who really wrote it

Jianzhi Sengcan

d. 606 CE · Third Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism

Jianzhi Sengcan (Chien-chih Seng-ts’an) is traditionally honored as the Third Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism in China, successor to Huike. He is credited by tradition with the Hsin Hsin Ming, one of the earliest and most beloved Zen poems, whose theme is the mind at peace once it stops grasping at like and dislike. The attribution is traditional rather than documentary — and the English words that made the poem famous in the West are those of its 20th-century translator, Arthur Waley.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Sengcan (attrib.). “Hsin Hsin Ming: On Trust in the Heart.” Trans. Arthur Waley. In Buddhist Texts Through the Ages, edited by Edward Conze, 296–298. New York: Philosophical Library, 1954.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between 'for' and 'against' is the mind's worst disease’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-perfect-way-is-only-difficult-for-those-who-pick-and