Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
If you understand others you are smart.If you understand yourself you are illuminated.If you overcome others you are powerful.If you overcome yourself you have strength.If you know how to be satisfied you are rich.If you can act with vigor, you have a will.If you don’t lose your objectives you can be long-lasting.If you die without loss, you are eternal.
Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.
A man is born gentle and weak; at his death he is hard and stiff. All things, including the grass and trees, are soft and pliable in life; dry and brittle in death. Stiffness is thus a companion of death; flexibility a companion of life. An army that cannot yield will be defeated. A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. The hard and stiff will be broken; the soft and supple will prevail.
A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it.
Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil.
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms.
We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness insidethat holds whatever we want.We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner spacethat makes it livable.We work with being, but non-being is what we use.
Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.
Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is to say, ‘I don’t want to.’
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.
We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.
Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.
In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
Time is a created thing. To say I don’t have time, is like saying, I don’t want to