Tao Te Ching
Inscrutable
Although Gracian's clear message tells us that we should, "Never disclose our sources of pain or joy, if we want one to cease and the other to endure;" lack of confidence, the desire for acceptance, approval and fame all undermine our attempts at being more inscrutable. While the wise tend to be revolutionary change agents, by far the majority of people don't want things to change—even if obviously for the better—and resist, often violently any attempt to make things different. So during most of history, inscrutability was essential for survival.
Carl Jung seemed to have a contradictory attitude toward inscrutability. He talked about how insulting it is to talk to people about things they don't understand and advised strongly against it; but, at the same time, he described how he consciously made his writings and talks very obscure "in order to avoid causing a prejudice in one direction or another." Like with most opposites, keeping a good balance becomes an important and delicate dance.
Quotes (97)
“The wise appear simple and ordinary on the outside while holding a precious treasure concealed within.”
“If you can stay in the lead of men without their knowing, you are at the core of life.”
“He plans secretly, moves surreptitiously, and foils the enemy's intentions... but his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom or credit for courage because the world at large knows nothing of them.”
“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.”
“Not every truth is the better for showing its face undisguised; and often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.”
“There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself - an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.”
“That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it, everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill.”
“When springs dry up, fish find themselves in puddles spraying water on each other to keep each other alive. Better to be in a river or lake and oblivious to one another.”
“State affairs are often accomplished in secrecy but miscarried if the news leaks out. It's not difficult to know but difficult to know what to do with what you know.”
“Sages are not controlled by names, not governed by plans, not burdened by affairs, and not ruled by intellect. They are concealed in formlessness; their acts are traceless, and their roamings are trackless.”
“Real people are those united with the Tao. Wandering in the vastness beyond mundane clutter, they work freely without making an issue of it, know without learning, see without looking, achieve without striving and understand without trying.”
“Seemeth it nothing to you, never to accuse, never to blame either God or Man? to wear ever the same countenance in going forth as in coming in? This was the secret of Socrates: yet he never said that he knew or taught anything…”
“Those who uncovered and touched this image of life were instantaneously destroyed and shall remain forever exposed to the play of the eternal waves. For the unutterable and the formless must be concealed.”
“If you disclose your charitable expenditures, they are good; but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, it is better for you.” 
“In darkest night it is perfectly clear; in the light of dawn it is hidden.”
“Those who treasure the Way fit in without making a show and stay forever hidden. Hence, they don’t leave any tracks.”
“Although the ancient masters lived in the world, no one thought they were special.”
“These days people are extremely jealous. If this is repeated to anyone other than you, friends, virtue will not flourish and defilement will increase. Therefore, keep this secret from ordinary people.”
“If you want to keep something concealed from your enemy, don't disclose it to your friend.”
“As long as a word remains unspoken, you are its master; once you utter it, you are its slave.”
“Unless words have great meaning, they will not escape his mouth. Unless there is a point to his actions, he will not resolve his mind.”
“Name and reality are often at odds. The reality of the Tao remains hidden in no name.”
“This affair is like a phoenix soaring into the heavens, not leaving a trace behind.”
“Sages don't reveal the Way because they keep it secret, but because it can't be revealed. Thus their words are like footsteps that leave to tracks.”
“She is with everyone and in everyone, and so beautiful is her secret that no person can know the sweetness with which she sustains people, and spares them in inscrutable mercy.”
“The Tao is also hard to understand and hard to put into practice… because all words are wrong, because it cannot be learned, and because the mind only leads us astray. Effortless stillness is not necessarily right, and actionless activity is not necessarily wrong.”
“enlightenment after enlightenment with no trace of enlightenment”
“The reason sages don’t speak or act is so they can bestow their blessings in secret and … when their work succeeds and people’s lives go well, people… don’t realize it was made possible by those on high.”
“It is only at night that brilliance and color are pleasing. By day let your appearance be simple and sober but at night it is well to wear bright and gay garments.”
“The meaning we have dispersed in various places and gathered again; what we have concealed in one place we have disclosed in another, that it may be understood by your wisdom.”
“One must be a little foolish if one does not want to be even more stupid.”
“Folly consists not in committing folly but in not hiding it when committed... the wise try to hide their errors while fools boast of them”
“Never disclose the source of pain or joy, if you want one to cease and the other to endure.”
“Never let things be seen half finished because deformity sticks in the imagination. To see the tastiest dishes prepared arouses disgust rather than appetite. Take this lesson from Mother Nature who doesn't bring the child to light until it is fit to be seen.”
“Never let the extent of your wisdom and skill be known... guesses and doubts arouse more respect than accurate knowledge.”
“A little of what you call frippery is very necessary towards looking like the rest of the world.”
“Tell a wise person, or else keep silent, because the mass man will mock it right away.”
“It is our duty to tell others no more than they are able to receive. Man grasps only what is to his measure.”
“The more they talk, the more wrong they go. It’s like pouring on oil to put out a fire - just foolishness and nothing else.”
“Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows like harmony in music; there is a dark inscrutable workmanship that reconciles discordant elements, makes them cling together In one society.”
“Shame on such a morality that fails to recognize the eternal essence that exists in every living thing and shines forth with inscrutable significance from all eyes that see the sun.”
“Only that mind draws me that I cannot read... The power men possess to annoy me, I give them with a weak curiosity.”
“true genius… prefers silence to saying the something which is not everything that should be said.”
“God keep me from ever completing anything… For small creations may be finished by their first architects; grand ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity.”
“brief phrases which seemed pregnant to him because he had many thoughts lying under them, like the abundant roots of a plant that just manages to peep above the water.”
“The most wonderful things are ever the unmentionable; deep memories yield no epitaphs”
“How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog. To tell your name the livelong day, To an admiring bog!”
“Buddhists maintain that there is no Creator but an infinitude of creative powers, which collectively form the one eternal substance, the essence of which is inscrutable hence not a subject for speculation for any true philosopher.”
“It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.”
“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.”
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
“Never explain―your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.”
“I deliberately express myself in very abstract terms in order to avoid causing a prejudice in one direction or another. The new thing must not be pigeon-holed under any heading, for then it is applied in a way that permits mechanical duplication”
“The standpoint of the man who relies on religious experience for capturing Reality must always remain individual and incommunicable.”
“While fame impedes and constricts, obscurity wraps about a person like a mist. Dark, ample and free, obscurity lets the mind make its way unimpeded. They alone are free, they alone are truthful, they alone are at peace.”
“We rejoice that the whole of the visible and invisible world is a deep inscrutable mystery—incomprehensible, beyond the intelligence, beyond desire, beyond certitude.”
“In times of great passion, the duty of the intellectual is to remain silent because in times of passion one has to lie and the intellectual has no right to lie.”
“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”
“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.”
“He who talks about truth injures it; he who tries to prove it thereby maims and distorts it; he who gives it a label and a school of thought kills it; and he who declares himself a believer buries it.”
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
“The emotions I feel are no more meant to be shown in their unadulterated state than the inner organs by which we live.”
“the meaning of the words lies not in the darkened part of the page but in the white spaces surrounding the.”
“It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.”
“What gods notice, they destroy. Be humble and you will escape the jealousy of the great”
“Through skillful means we are able to conserve subtle energy by expressing it carefully in small amounts with pauses... When we express ourselves excessively with excitement... our energy is lost and we feel anxious and depressed... it is best to keep energy contained without expressing it until we get results, until we develop confidence.”
“Inscrutability is not a product of hard work, but is inspiration, realization... when the situation is being experienced and felt fully and properly, then you have nothing to fight for... nothing to lose.”
“inscrutability is based on fearlessness. This is unlike the conventional concept of inscrutability, which is deviousness or a blank wall… From this fearlessness, you develop gentleness and sympathy, which allow you to be noncommittal, but with a sense of humor.”
“Words and deeds can be falsified, but not understanding and practice… As with geodes, jade is found inside ordinary looking rocks. Officals once wore it on their hats as an emblem of their status, and alchemists often included it in their elixirs.”
“Poetry has the ability to point us toward the truth then stand aside, while prose stands in the doorway relating all the wonders on the other side but rarely lets us pass.”
“Is it possible for one human being to understand another? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?”
“Without the burdens and problems associated with fame and fortune, Lieh-tzu could live leisurely and be free to do what he liked and go where he wanted… being an unknown citizen was better than being a person of power and responsibility… it was better to remain silent and be truthful to oneself.”
“Even the fact that we have nothing to hide can be something we have good reason to hide.”
“if it helps you to get invited to some social functions, it is totally fine to hide that you are a Buddhist. But keep in mind that as a Buddhist, you have a mission to refrain as much as possible fro harming others, and to help others as much as possible.”
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