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 You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing everything with logic. If words control you that means that everyone else can control you. Breath and allow things to pass.” |
REBT Mates! I have been sharing this quote (supposedly) by Bruce Lee regularly without realizing that it is a hoax. Thanks to Jonathan von Breton for bringing it to my attention when I posted it on facebook recently. Apparently it has been floating around the internet, attributed falsely to Bruce Lee, Warren Buffet and probably others. See the Quote Investigator story https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/07/26/. Other fact checking services concur.
The main reason I bring this up is to illustrate how tricky the mind can be. I am not more familiar with Bruce Lee that the average person and when I read the quote it rang as authentic. After, all, Bruce was always saying stuff like this, wasn’t he? I didn’t see any reason to fact check it. When I learned that it had also been attributed to financier Warren Buffett, by first reaction was that doesn’t sound like Buffett, as if I would be very familiar with what Warren Buffett sounds like. I’m not! Then, I thought about it for a minute and realized there was no reason it couldn’t it have been Buffett. After all he must be a wise, skillful and extraordinarily disciplined man in order to achieve his success and great wealth. At least that’s a reasonable assumption. So, why couldn’t he have said the words? Well, certainly he could have, but he didn’t!
Then, it occurred to me that it almost doesn’t matter whose name is attached to the quote, does it? It could be Abraham Lincoln, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Rogers, or the Dalai Lama. If you buy into the quote, especially if you are impressed by it, your mind will find a way to associate it with the attributed author.
In this particular situation, happily, it doesn’t really matter, and no harm was done. But let it serve as yet another cautionary tale to be very careful of what you consume on social media. Try to make a regular habit of fact checking anything you want to share. It just takes a minute or two to google a fact check of something that doesn’t quite pass your “smell test.” Get into the habit of listening to your “spidey sense” if something seems off about any claim you come across on the internet. It will make you feel good when you catch a lie, and you will be dong a valuable service for your internet friends and colleagues.
Still, it is a great quote. I wold love to know the source so I can give credit where credit is due.
~Rex
Fri 14 Feb 2020, 5:33 pm
 Tao of Jeet Kune Do |
 Bruce Lee: a Life |
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 The Warrior Within: |
 Striking Thoughts |
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Originally posted 2019-04-11 21:55:02.
Contact: Rex@REBTinfo.com
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