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Lots of people talk to animals… Not very many listen, though… That’s the problem.

Benjamin Hoff

Treat gain and loss the same.’ Don’t be Intimidated. Don’t make a Big Deal of anything – just accept things as they come to you.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Accepting Gains Loss
Enjoy the simple, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Pooh Simple Simplicity Tao
Things just happen in the right way, at the right time. At least when you let them, when you work with circumstances instead of saying, ‘This isn’t supposed to be happening this way,’ and trying harder to make it happen some other way.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Pooh Tao Trying Way
The play-it-safe pessimists of the world never accomplish much of anything, because they don’t look clearly and objectively at situations, they don’t recognize or believe in their own abilities to overcome even the smallest amount of risk.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Believe Play Risk
Pooh is able to accomplish what he does because he is simpleminded.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Able Minded Simple Tao
Wisdom, Happiness, and Courage are not waiting somewhere out beyond sight at the end of a straight line; they’re part of a continuous cycle that begins right here. They’re not only the ending, but the beginning as well.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Lines Sight Waiting
You’d be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Reality Simple Square
As any old Taoist walking out of the woods can tell you, simple-minded does not necessarily mean stupid.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Mean Simple Stupid
Reality is what one makes it. And the more negative reality one nurtures and creates, the more of it one has.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Negative Nurture Reality
When we give up our images of self-importance and our ideas of what should be, we can help things become what they need to be.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Give Up Ideas Self
It means that Tao doesn’t force or interfere with things, but lets them work in their own way, to produce results naturally. Then whatever needs to be done is done.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Done Mean Needs
Through working in harmony with life’s circumstances, Taoist understanding changes what others may percieve as negative into something positive.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Appreciation Perspective Understanding
Now, scholars can be very useful and necessary, in their own dull and unamusing way. They provide a lot of information. It’s just that there is Something More, and that Something More is what life is really all about.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Dull Information Way
Lots of people talk to animals… Not very many listen, though… That’s the problem.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Dog Inspiring Love Problem
“What’s that?” the Unbeliever asked. “Wisdom from the Western Taoist,” I said. “It sounds like something from Winnie-the-Pooh,” he said. “It is,” I said. “That’s not about Taoism,” he said. “Oh, yes it is,” I said.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Sound Taoism Wisdom Words
The Universe knows what it’s doing. So don’t develop a big ego, and don’t be afraid.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Bigs Ego Knows
Modern man’s difficulties, dangerous beliefs and feelings of loneliness, spiritual emptiness,and personal weakness are caused by his illusions about, and separation from, the natural world.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Loneliness Men Spiritual
“Rabbit’s clever,” said Pooh thoughtfully. “Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit’s clever.” “And he has Brain.” “Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit has Brain.” There was a long silence. “I suppose,” said Pooh, “that that’s why he never understands anything.”
BENJAMIN HOFF

Clever Funny Humor
A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn’t really care, wisdom does.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Clever Heart Mind
No matter how useful we may be, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize our own value.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Limitation Matter May Sometimes
Knowledge and Experience do not necessarily speak the same language.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Experience Knowledge Language Speak
If people were superior to animals, they’d take good care of them,” said Pooh.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Animal Nature People
Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Phrases Purpose Steps
The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard – one that thinks too much.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Awkward Confused Thinking
In the Age of Perfect Virtue, men lived among the animals and birds as members of one large family. There were no distinctions between superior and inferior to separate one man or species from another. All retained their natural Virtue and lived in a state of pure simplicity.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Animal Men Perfect
From the Taoist point of view, the natural result of this harmonious way of living is happiness.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Happiness Pooh Tao Views Way
Cleverness, after all, has its limitations. Its mechanical judgments and clever remarks tend to prove inaccurate with passing time, because it doesn’t look very deeply into things to begin with.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Clever Looks Pooh

Lots of people talk to animals… Not very many listen, though… That’s the problem.

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Lots of people talk to animals… Not very many listen, though… That’s the problem.

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