“People value that part of knowledge which is known. They do not know how to avail themselves of the Unknown in order to reach knowledge. Is this not misguided?”

If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.

Either in conflict with others or in harmony with them, we go through life like a runaway horse, unable to stop.

To be truly ignorant, be content with your own knowledge.

Those who follow the Tao are of clear mind. They do not load their mind with anxieties and are flexible in their adjustment to external conditions.

The sound of water says what I think.

He who pursues fame at the risk of losing his self is not a scholar.

Your preciousness lies in your essence; it cannot be lost by anything that happens.

He who knows the activities of Nature lives according to Nature.

Everything has what is innate,everything has what is necessary.

A battering ram can knock down a city wall, but it cannot stop a hole. Different things have different uses.

Heaven does without doing through its purity, Earth does without doing through its calmness.

The ultimate happiness is doing nothing.

I am going to try speaking some reckless words, and I want you to try to listen recklessly.

We are born from a quiet sleep, and we die to a calm awakening

Only the intelligent knows how to identify all things as one. When one is at ease with himself, one is near Tao. This is to let Nature take its own course.

The one-legged creature is envious of the millipede; the millipede is envious of the snake; the snake is envious of the wind; the wind is envious of the eye; the eye is envious of the heart.

If the faults of men in orders are only to be judged among themselves, they are all in some sort parties; for, since they say the honour of their order is concerned in every member of it, how can we be sure that they will be impartial judges?

God has to be temporarily cruel in order to be permanently kind.

In order to prove a friend to one’s guests, frugality must reign in one’s meals; and, according to an ancient saying, one must eat to live, not live to eat.

After that, what is the need of books? One should learn the essence and then dive deep in order to realize God.

Sometimes you have to put your fears in order.

Suffering is essential for the elimination of the ego, just as it was necessary for you to scrub and scrub in order to wash the stain from my coat.

Order is the greatest grace.

I feel anxious for the fate of our monarchy, or democracy, or whatever is to take place. I soon get lost in a labyrinth of perplexities; but, whatever occurs