“A small rock holds back a great wave.”

— Homer 1
Primogenitor of Western culture

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“Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.”

— Pythagorus 570 – 495 BCE
(of Samos)
"The most influential philosopher of all time"
from Golden Verses of Pythagoras Χρύσεα

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“Good government is that which resorts least to laws and punishments.”

— Confucius 孔丘 551 – 479 BCE
(Kongzi, Kǒng Zǐ)
History's most influential "failure"

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“In seeing victory, not going beyond what everyone knows is not skilled… One skilled at battle takes a stand in the ground of no defeat… Therefore, the victorious military is first victorious and after that does battle.”

— Sun Tzu 孙武 544 – 496 BCE via Denma Translation Group
(Sun Zi)
HIstory's supreme strategist
from Art of War 孙子兵法

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“One skilled at battle takes a stand in the ground of no defeat… the victorious military is first victorious and after than does battle… And so one who is skilled cultivates Tao and preserves method.”

— Sun Tzu 孙武 544 – 496 BCE via Denma Translation Group
(Sun Zi)
HIstory's supreme strategist
from Art of War 孙子兵法

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“In cooking a small fish, too much turning ruins it. In governing a great state, too much reform embitters the people. Thus a ruler who possesses the Way values inaction over reform.”

— Hán Fēi 韓非 280 – 233 BCE

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“If tasks are big and many and are frequently shifted, few of them can be accomplished; if we move a big vessel too often, it will incur many damages; if, when governing a big country, you alter laws and decrees too often, the people will suffer hardships.”

— Hán Fēi 韓非 280 – 233 BCE

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“If you cook a small fish, don’t remove its entrails, don’t scrape off its scales, and don’t stir it. If you do, it will turn to mush. Likewise, too much government makes those below rebel.”

— Heshang Gong 河上公 202 – 157 BCE
(Ho-shang Kung or "Riverside Sage”)

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“Most of what passes for legitimate entertainment is inferior or foolish… Your life is too short and you have important things to do. Be discriminating about what images and ideas you permit into your mind. If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest… determine not to waste your time and attention on mindless pap.”

— Epictetus Ἐπίκτητος 55 – 135 CE
from Discourses of Epictetus, Ἐπικτήτου διατριβαί

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“A noble heart’s words are as rare gems, seldom displayed and of great value.”

— Mumon Ekai 無門慧開 1183 – 1260 CE
(Wumen Huikai)
Pioneering pathfinder to the Gateless Gate

from The Gateless Gate, 無門関, 無門關

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“Be more careful not to miss once than to hit a hundred times… Evil news carries farther than any applause… All the exploits of a person taken together are not enough to wipe out a single small blemish.”

— Balthasar Gracian 1601 – 1658 CE via Joseph Jacobs
from Art of Worldly Wisdom

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“Teach your child to hold his tongue, he’ll learn fast enough to speak.”

— Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790 CE
from Poor Richard's Almanack

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“The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment.”

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 – 1834 CE

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“Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessaries.”

— Mark Twain 1835 – 1910 CE
(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
America’s most famous author

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“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

— Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955 CE

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“there is no need to plow, no need to apply fertilizer, no need to make compost, no need to use insecticide... there are few agricultural practices that are really necessary.”

— Masanobu Fukuoka 福岡 正信 1913 – 2008 CE via Larry Korn
from One Straw Revolution

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“Thomas Jefferson would have liked the first stanza… wise souls neither indulge nor repress the troubled spirits that may haunt them.”

— Ursula Le Guin 1929 – 2018 CE

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“When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; a culture-death is a clear possibility.”

— Neil Postman 1931 – 2003 CE
from Amusing Ourselves to Death

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“In this state of total consumerism - which is to say a state of helpless dependence on things and services and ideas and motives that we have forgotten how to provide ourselves - all meaningful contact between ourselves and the earth is broken.”

— Wendell Berry 1934 CE –

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“A warrior doesn’t need color television or video games… doesn’t need to read comic books… the world of entertainment doesn’t arise.”

— Chögyam Trungpa 1939 – 1987 CE
from Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

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“Commenting on the Taoteching is also like cooking a small fish. Better to have left it in the sea.”

— Red Pine 1943 CE –
( Bill Porter)
Exceptional translator, cultural diplomat

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