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The wise know their limitations; the foolish do not.

Benjamin Hoff

Unfortunately complaining is one thing Eeyores are not afraid to do. They grudgingly carry their thimbles to the Fountain of Life, then mumble and grumble that they weren’t given enough.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Complaining Enough Fountain
When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Belong Job Respect Tao
No matter how useful we may be, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize our own value.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Limitation Matter May Sometimes
But isn’t the knowledge that comes from experience more valuable than the knowledge that doesn’t? It seems fairly obvious to some of us that a lot of scholars need to go outside and sniff around – walk through the grass, talk to the animals. That sort of thing.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Animal Needs Pooh Tao
A well-frog cannot imagine the ocean, nor can a summer insect conceive of ice. How then can a scholar understand the Tao? He is restricted by his own learning.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Ice Ocean Summer
Lots of people talk to animals… Not very many listen, though… That’s the problem.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Dog Inspiring Love Problem
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
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
One sometimes gets the impression that those intimidating words are there to keep us from understanding. That way, the scholars can appear Superior, and will not likely be suspected of Not Knowing Something.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Knowing Understanding Way
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
Whether many people realize it yet or not, man, the Inferior Animal, has by now proved himself incapable of keeping his own species – and others – alive for very much longer. So the earth has begun its own plan to set things right.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Animals Men People
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
While Eeyore frets … … and Piglet hesitates … and Rabbit calculates … and Owl pontificates …Pooh just is.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Owl Piglet Rabbits
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
From the Taoist point of view, the natural result of this harmonious way of living is happiness.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Happiness Pooh Tao Views Way
Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Home New Pooh Sweet Tao
Like silence after noise, or cool, clear water on a hot, stuffy day, Emptiness cleans out the messy mind and charges up the batteries of spiritual energy. Many people are afraid of Emptiness, however, because it reminds them of Loneliness.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Loneliness People Spiritual
Phonographic. It goes around and around. Sometimes it gets stuck. That’s why I remember things so well.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Remember Sometimes Stuck
“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
If people were superior to animals, they’d take good care of them,” said Pooh.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Animal Nature People
Well, it takes all kinds to make a mess.
BENJAMIN HOFF

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

Mean Simple Stupid
There is more to knowing than just being correct
BENJAMIN HOFF

Correct Just Being Knowing
When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Block Discover Fun Life
Without difficulties, life would be like a stream without rocks and curves – about as interesting as concrete. Without problems, there can be no personal growth, no group achievement, no progress of humanity. But what mattes about problems is what one does with them.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Curve Interesting Rocks
Sourness and bitterness come from the interfering and unappreciative mind. Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet. That is the message of The Vinegar Tasters.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Messages Mind Sweet

The wise know their limitations; the foolish do not.

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The wise know their limitations; the foolish do not.

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