Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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James Hilton

1900 – 1954 CE

Writer of the first paperback novel (PocketBooks #1 said to have started the "paperback revolution"), Academy Award winner, author of 22 books, and creator of the now famous "Shangri-La;” Hilton imagined, populated, and launched into our cultural consciousness his depiction of a happy and enlightened group living in a remote, secret, almost inaccessible, and secret land protecting the best of culture during a dark age. Many cultures have similar myths but his was so powerful Franklin D. Roosevelt used it as name for the presidential retreat now called Camp David and China recently renamed an entire mountain region after it. Many of his characters exemplified a deep wisdom and appreciation for doubt over belief.

Eras

Sources

Lost Horizon

Quotes by James Hilton (14 quotes)

“Look at the world today… What madness there is! What blindness! A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity crashing headlong against each other. The time must come, my friend, when brutality and the lust for power must perish by its own sword. For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life. And it is our hope that they may find it here.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 18. The Sick Society

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“The will of God or the lunacy of man - it seemed to him that you could take your choice, if you wanted a good enough reason for most things. Or, alternatively, the will of man and the lunacy of God.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 19. All Methods Become Obstacles

Themes: God

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“Laziness in doing stupid things can be a great virtue.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 29. Not Doing

Themes: Integrity

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“...they didn’t think there was anything very odd in anyone being a little odd.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 41. Distilled Life

Themes: Crazy Wisdom

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“… crime was very rare, partly because only serious things were considered crimes, and partly because everyone enjoyed a sufficiency of everything he could reasonably desire.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 53. Shameless Thieves

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“If we have not found the heaven within, we have not found the heaven without.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 56. One with the Dust

Themes: Basic Goodness

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“But pretense was impossible. There was a quality in the air of Shangri-La that forbade one the effort of counterfeit emotion.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 57. Wu Wei

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“Our people would be quite shocked by having to declare that one policy was completely right and another completely wrong.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 64. Ordinary Mind

Themes: Middle Way

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“The jewel has facets and it is possible that many religions are moderately true.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 65. Simplicity: the Hidden Power of Goodness

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“People make mistakes in life through believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 71. Sick of Sickness
58. Goals Without Means

Themes: Belief Mistakes

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“Life's more important than a living. So many people who make a living are making death, not life. Don't ever join them. They're the gravediggers of our civilization - The safe men. The compromisers. The moneymakers.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 72. Helpful Fear

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“The English regard slackness as a vice. We, on the other hand should vastly prefer it to tension. Is there not too much tension in the world…”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 73. Heaven’s Net

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We believe that to govern perfectly it is necessary to avoid governing too much.

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 75. Greed
58. Goals Without Means

Themes: Government

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“If I could put it into a very few words, I should say that our prevalent belief is in moderation. We inculcate the virtue of avoiding excesses of all kinds—even including, if you will pardon the paradox, excess of virtue itself.”

from Lost Horizon

Chapters: 77. Stringing a Bow

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