Tao Te Ching
Golden Rule
Almost every religious tradition has some version of the “Golden Rule”—treat other people the way you would like them to treat you. As universal and unanimously accepted this sentiment has become, it may be almost even more universally ignored and disregarded. Capitalism has become the modern world’s religion and preaches the ethics of selfishness and me-first materialism. This perception easily gives rise to a cynical disdain; but, the issue may not be as clear cut as at first seems. Issues related to idiot compassion easily arise. One of Confucius’ students once asked him about this Golden Rule and returning love for hate, good for evil. Confucius replied, “With what then would you reward kindness? Instead, return good for good, and for evil, justice.”
Quotes (81)
“Having already reached the sunset of my life (being almost on the verge of departure from the world on account of old age), I wanted, before being overtaken by death, to compose a fine anthem to celebrate the fullness of happiness and so to help now those who are well-constituted. It is right to help also generations to come (for they too belong to us, though they are still unborn)”
“demonstrate justice within the land, destroy evil and wickedness, stop the mighty from exploiting the weak”
“All strangers and beggars are from Zeus, and a gift, though small, is precious.”
“A man who works evil against another works it really against himself, he's only harming himself who's bent upon harming another”
“That nature alone is good which shall not do unto another whatever is not not good unto itself.”
“Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss.”
“When a student asked Confucius about returning good for evil, he replied: 'With what then will you recompense kindness? Return good for good, and for evil, justice.'”
“It is easy to love your friend, but sometimes the hardest lesson to learn is to love your enemy.”
“Do unto others as you would like to be done by. Injury or violence done by you to any life in any form, animal or human, is as harmful as it would e if caused to your own self.”
“the truly superior man of the world regards his friend the same as himself, and his friend's father the same as his own.”
“One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.”
“You must always remember that all men are your brothers, down to the vilest and most debased; they are your family and your friends, your fellow-citizens as well. You must be kind therefore, endlessly kind”
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’… in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
“On Golden Rule:
Repay wrongs with the Power of Goodness;
Love your brother and sister as your soul;
protect them as you do the pupils of your eyes.”
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.”
“What is hateful to you, don’t do to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.”
“Those who are remorseful sympathize with their opponents. They try not to gain an advantage but to avoid injury. Hence, they always win.”
“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”
“None of you have faith until you love for your neighbor what you love for yourself.”
“If we repay wrongs with kindness, we put an end to revenge. If we repay wrongs with wrongs, revenge never ends.”
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. But better not expect others to do unto you what you would do unto them.”
“Justice, equity, modesty, mercy—doing to others as we would be done to—are contrary to our natural passions that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge, and the like.”
“Those who are governed by reason desire nothing for themselves which they do not also desire for the rest of mankind.”
“Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.”
“He does not join any of the sects which all contradict one another. His religion is most ancient and the most widespread... to do good is his worship... he succors the indigent and defends the oppressed.”
“He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
“Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound.”
“What is success? To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived”
“Who shall be fairest? - who shall be rarest? Who shall be first in the songs that we sing? She who is kindest when fortune is blindest, Bearing through winter the blooms of the spring.”
“I should like to make life beautiful—I mean everybody's life... It spoils my enjoyment of anything when I am made to think that most people are shut out from it.”
“Love to throw yourself on the earth and kiss it with an unceasing, consuming love. Love all men, love everything. Water the earth with the tears of your joy and love those tears. This is a great gift of God not given to many. Prize it.”
“Wisdom and Truth are synonymous terms, and—well-known by representatives of the Church of England—the Sermon of the Mount would, in its practical application, mean utter ruin for their country in less than three weeks”
“Man is a Religious Animal, the only Religious Animal... He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight.”
“'Love of the neighbor' is always something secondary, partly convential and arbitrary-illusion in relation to fear of the neighbor.”
“Should not the giver be thankful that the receiver received? Is not giving a need? Is not receiving, mercy?”
“Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.”
“To command us to love our neighbors as ourselves... is impossible to fulfill; such an enormous inflation of love can only lower its value and not remedy the evil. Civilization pays no heed to this.”
“Genius consists in the power to reflect and not in the intrinsic value of the thing reflected, from the faculty of transforming or transposing. Those who produce works of genius are those who—ceasing to live for themselves—have the ability to make a mirror of their personality.”
“It's all very well to tell us to forgive our enemies; our enemies can never hurt us very much. But oh, what about forgiving our friends?”
“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”
“If one does not take the verses of the New Testament as being commandments, but as expressions of an extraordinary awareness of the secrets of our soul, then the wisest word ever spoken is: 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.’”
“Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
“At home we have preached, and will continue to preach, the gospel of the good neighbor. I hope from the bottom of my heart that as the years go on, in every continent and in every clime, Nation will follow Nation in proving by deed as well as by word their adherence to the ideal of the Americas — I am a good neighbor.”
“decorate the dungeon with flowers… As we are a doomed race, chained to a sinking ship, as the whole thing is a bad joke, let us, at any rate do our part; mitigate the suffering of our fellow-prisoners”
“As in love, so in hospitality, surely he who gives is happier than he who receives.”
“the sole way to save oneself is to save others. Or to struggle to save others—even that is sufficient.”
“I should like every religious institution to preach morality rather than theology, and welcome into its fellowship every person who accepts the Golden Rule”
“Somewhere, sometime, in the name of humanity, we must challenge a thousand evil precedents , and dare to apply the Golden Rule to nations as the Buddhist King Ashoka did in 262 BCE”
“We seek victory—not over any nation or people—but over ignorance, poverty, disease, and human degradation wherever they may be found.”
“Love thine enemies because they are the instruments of your destiny.”
“There can be no more wars of faith. The only way to overcome our enemy is by loving him.”
“Our custom has almost always been to look outside ourselves for ethical standards instead of feeling free to base our principles simply upon what we would like to do and have done to us.”
“The extremity of the situation itself,[ the suffering] generates compassion because the most intense darkness is itself the seed of light, and all explicit warfare is implicit love.”
“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?’”
“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. If you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of each of your arms.”
“'Love thy neighbor as thyself' surely does not mean that as we are, with all that is in us of fear and hate, we can transmit the divine power of love to our fellowman.”
“The most important point is that when you take, you take the worst; and when you give, you give the best… So don’t take any credit – unless you have been blamed.”
“Commenting on Chuang Tzu’s story about the Marquis of Lu trying to help a seabird, Stephen Mitchell writes, 'The marquis…by acting out the Golden Rule, became the golden fool… Love your neighbor as yourself: leave him alone.'”
“Being altruistic not only helps us to benefit others, but it is also the most satisfying way to live.”
“Best self-interest lies in achieving universal well-being… When the goal of self-=interest is seen to be perfectly isomorphic with universal well-being, bad people will do what it takes to get universal well-being.”
“Brotherly love in the literal sense comes at the expense of brotherly love in the biblical sense; the more precisely we bestow unconditional kindness on relatives, the less of it is left over for others.”
“Separateness is an illusion, what we do to another, we do to ourselves.”
“A finite-minded leader uses the company's performance to demonstrate the value of their own career. An infinite-minded leader uses their career to enhance the long-term value of the company”
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