Tao Te Ching
Artur Szczybylo
Simplicity
Quotes (79)
“Pride more than age hastens life to its end;
And they who in pride pretend
Beyond man's limit, will lose what lay
Close to their hand and sure.”
“The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life.”
“Like water that becomes clear when left alone, the wise make no plans and casually adjust themselves to events.”
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
“Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration.”
“The world was easier to understand when choices fell away. It was like understanding a tree when all the leaves dropped: There it was, the pattern of the boughs, the tree itself.”
“In the village of nothingness
Gnarled trees prosper
Useless, nothing will harm them.”
“How miraculous and wondrous, hauling water and carrying firewood!”
“A mountain doesn’t have to be high if a saint lives there. Water doesn’t have to be deep if it shelters a dragon. My tiny, simple and shabby room becomes a palace when wisdom reveals itself.”
“When occupations come to us we must accept them; when things come to us we must understand them from the ground up.”
“Rest in the nature of alaya (‘simplicity and in clear and nondiscriminating mind’- CTR).”
“Do not cling to one side or one direction.
Look into the midst of the space of simplicity.”
“Although the stars are greater in number, it is the moon which dispels the darkness.”
“The reeds blossom under the bright moon; the jade thread fits into the golden needle; the opportunity arises to turn around, enter the world, and respond to conditions.”
“I go to the marketplace with my wine bottle and return home with my staff. I visit the wine shop and the market, and everyone I look upon becomes enlightened.”
“Apricots burst into bloom; a simple-hearted person faces the simple-hearted flowers.”
“It is present in everyone but within the reach of only a few... If you rest naturally with whatever manifests, without conscious striving, it is evident.”
“Those who are content with little live day by day and treat any day like a feast day.”
“What is simple has no name. Once we make something,we give it a name. But name gives rise to name. Where does it end? Hence Lao-tzu tells us to stop chasing names.”
“Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.”
“Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”
“He who is plenteously provided for from within, needs but little from without.”
“Simplicity and sincerity generally go hand in hand, as both proceed from a love of truth.”
“Simplicity is the seal of truth... naked truth must be so simple and intelligible that it an be imparted to everyone it its true shape—without disguising it as religion.”
“Too much reading robs the mind of all elasticity... the surest way of never having any thoughts of your own is to pick up a book (smart phone or computer) every time you have a free moment.”
“the necessary ingredients of happiness: simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience.”
“Let us worship God again in simplicity instead of making a fool of him in splendid edifices.”
“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”
“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! Let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand... keep your accounts on a thumbnail.”
“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.”
“After a certain age, our memories are so intermingled that the thing we are thinking of or the book we are reading hardly matters at all... quite as valuable discoveries as we could make in Pascal's Thoughts may be inspired by a soap advertisement.”
“Simplicity delights only when others know that you can well afford not to be simple.”
“A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.”
“To be simple is the best thing in the world; to be modest is the next best thing. I am not that sure about being quiet.”
“Consciousness is forever interfering… It would be a simple enough thing to do, if only simplicity were not the most difficult of all things.”
“Self-conceit is hostile to simplicity… Simplicity, beauty, and fearlessness - Christ and Buddha spoke of nothing more. Simplicity is a blessing of the spirit that vibrates in these Teachings.”
“I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.”
“She was beautiful in her ignorance, virtuous in her simplicity, and strong in her weakness. Today she has become ugly in her ingenuity, superficial and heartless in her knowledge. Will the day ever come when beauty and knowledge, ingenuity and virtue, and weakness of body and strength of spirit will be united… ?”
“There is much pleasure in the simple work of the hands, and, as the old rabbis taught, even the scholar will find that the possession of a trade may save him from selling his conclusions for an income.”
“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.”
“Remember, all of man's happiness is in the little valleys. Tiny little ones. Small enough to call from one side to the other.”
“appalled by the raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms, and by the too obtrusive fate that heeded its inhabitants along a short cut from nothing to nothing, she saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand.”
“Children understand… All grown-ups were once children but only few of them remember it… I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them… Only the children know what they are looking for.”
“Uncarved wood… metaphysically means the One, simple and undifferentiated… simplicity, plainness, genuineness in spirit and heart”
“Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out... let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way about.”
“When your practice is calm and ordinary, everyday life itself is enlightenment.”
“Instead of only criticizing your culture, you should devote your mind and body to practicing this simple way. Then society and culture will grow out of you.”
“The everyday practice is just ordinary life itself.”
“Meditation could be said to be the Art of Simplicity: simply sitting, simply breathing and simply being.”
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.”
“Chuang Tzu is mysterious because it is so simple that it can get along without being a way at all… Chuang Tzu would have agreed with St. John of the Cross, that you enter upon this kind of way when you leave all ways and, in some sense, get lost.”
“What is Zen? Simple, simple, so simple. Infinite gratitude toward all things past; infinite service to all things present; infinite responsibility to all things future.”
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.”
“The simplicity or singleness of the Way is that of water which always rejoins itself.”
“You begin to experience the simplicity of awareness,so although the sensorial hallucinations might continue, they don’t mean anything to you. There is a quality of one flavor, or one taste.”
“When we look at things as they are on a very simple and ordinary level, we find that they are fantastically , obviously true, frighteningly true… There is a kind of courtship, a love affair between the obviousness and you perceiving it.”
“Name takes sides. Complexity limits options Hence, those who uphold nameless simplicity don’t take sides and keep their options. Open”
“Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart.”
“To embrace simplicity is to delight in household activities, caring for loved ones, enjoying the sexual company of a partner, nourishing the body, and freeing the mind from anxiety and negativity.”
“In a culture obsessed with hard work and career success, it can be difficult to wean ourselves off the work ethic. And we may not want to if we are engrossed in a career that is making us feel fully alive. But if we do seek the space to nurture other parts of who we are, then we might be wise to put our hopes in the virtues of simple living”
“Immersed in consumerism, how can we break away from this culture of addiction? We will need inner discipline and we'll need to choose a lifestyle of minimum needs and maximum contentment.”
“Glimpses of pristine awareness can be treransfomative, but it takes work to stabilize the view. This why we say, Short moments, many times. Many, many times.”
Comments (0)
Log in to comment.