the happiest destiny on earth is to have the rare gift of a rich individuality

in solitude, where every one is thrown upon his own resources, what a man has in himself comes to light... a man is sociable just in the degree in which he is intellectually poor and generally vulgar.

Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try to win on another's money... card playing is so demoralizing, since the whole opject of it is to employ every kind of trick and machination in order to win what belongs to another.

every man has a horizon of his own, and he will expect as much as he thinks it is possible for him to get.

Regard life with passion to see its manifest forms, do away with passion to see the Secret of Life.

The principal teaching of Lao Tzu is humility... gentleness, resignation, the futility of contention, the strength of weakness.

Above all, the one important message of Taoism is the oneness and spirituality of the material universe.

Chuang Tzu scoffed a the glitter of success, lambasted the great... What was philosophy in Lao Tzu became poetry in Chuang Tzu.

The principle of leveling of all opposites, and the theory of cycles and universal reversion to opposites are basic for the understanding of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu philosophy and its practical teachings. All Lao Tzu's paradoxes arise from this point of view.

This chapter seems to be the summing up of Lao Tzu's teachings in a nutshell. Most basic of all is the statement of the principle of reversion... each ending becoming a new beginning. The life of things passes by like a rushing, galloping horse, changing at every turn, at every hour.

Chuang Tzu felt the sorrow of man's short life on this earth and was fascinated by the mystery of dearth. He constantly expressed this feeling with the gifted pen of a poet... What was philosophy in Lao Tzu often became poetry in the younger Taoist disciple.

Confucians worship culture and reason; Taoists reject them in favor of nature and intuition, and the one who rejects anything always seems to stand on a higher level and therefore always seems more attractive than the one who accepts it... Lao Tzu's aphorisms communicate an excitement which Confucian humdrum good sense cannot. Confucian philosophy is a philosophy of social order, and order is seldom exciting.

The first reaction of anyone scanning the Tao Te Ching is laughter; the second reaction, laughter at one's own laughter; and the third, a feeling that this sort of teaching is very much needed today.

While Lao Tzu spoke in aphorisms, Chuang Tzu wrote long, discursive philosophical essays. While Lao Tzu was all intuition, Chuang Tzu was all intellect. Lao Tzu smiled; Chuang Tzu laughed. Lao Tzu taught; Chuang Tzu scoffed. Lao Tzu spoke to the heart; Chuang Tzu spoke to the mind. Lao Tzu was like Whitman; Chuang Tzu was like Thoreau. Lao Tzu was like Rousseau; Chuang Tzu was like Voltaire.

I would characterize the Confucian political ideal as strictly anarchism, in which moral culture of the people making government unnecessary become the ideal. If it is asked why the people of Chinatown in New York never have any use for the the police, the answer is Confucianism. There never were any police in China for 4000 years.

People need to learn how to regulate their lives socially and not just rely upon the law. The law should be the resort of the scoundrel... for 4000 years, China had no police.

when we speak of democracy as a way of life and talk of the spirit of democracy, we can talk about 'Chinese democracy'—the idea of government for the people and by the consent of the people, but not government by the people and of the people. While parliamentary government is based on distrust of the ruler, Confucian ideals emphasized moral harmony as the basis of political harmony, laissez faire as the key policy and only one that has ever worked; the Great Chinese empire was always ruled without police depending—not on government or soldiers—but on the self-government of the people.

that politics must be subordinated to morals, that government is a makeshift of temporization, law a superficial instrument of order, and police force a foolish invention for morally immature individuals

Only a robust mind like that of Walt Whitman who was not inflicted with the scientific spirit and who was in close touch with life itself and with the great humanity could retain that enormous love and enormous faith in the common man.

If there is one book in the whole of Oriental literature which one should read above all others, it is, in my opinion, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. If there is one book that can claim to interpret for us the spirit of the Orient, or that is necessary to understanding of characteristic Chinese behavior, including literally 'the ways that are dark,' it is the Tao Te Ching.