Tao Te Ching
Anonymity
Hope for approval and fear of criticism represent some of the strongest influences on our personal, political, and cultural lives. Most of us, most of the time stay busy trying to impress people while we look for approval, praise and fame. This enslaves and sells our souls to the tyrants of public opinion, the status quo, and to external personal whim. As an antidote to this, the cloak of anonymity opens wide doors of personal expression, creativity, and innovation. In ancient times, perhaps less personal ego fostered this approach, perhaps names were just eroded away by time as is surely the case with many of the quotations that comes to us through the annals of history, perhaps people needed to avoid religious or political persecution. The venerable tradition of using pseudonyms exemplifies both the need and benefit of freeing ourselves from the narrow boxes defined by our personal histories.
Quotes (76)
“Without taking credit, a wise man is accredited; laying no claim, he is acclaimed.”
“Because they don't nurture an independent self, the wise put themselves in the background and find fulfillment.”
“The wise… teach without saying anything… create without claiming… work without taking credit… accomplish without attachment.”
“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 happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self.”
“The way of the superior man is hidden but becomes more prominent every day, whereas the way of the inferior man is conspicuous but gradually disappears.”
“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.”
“Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.”
“While he does not follow the crowd, he won't complain about those who do... The man of Tao remains unknown.”
“The sage is the world’s greatest weapon but not one that is known to the world.”
“It is wonderful how much good a man may do in this world if he does not care who gets the credit for it.”
“Anyone can count the seeds in an apple but no one can count the apples in a seed.”
“Anyone can count the seeds in an apple but no one can count the apples in a seed.”
“As with a tree, the more of it there is, the farther it is from its roots. The less of it there is, the closer it is to its roots. ‘More’ means more distanat from what is real. ‘Less’ means closer.”
“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.” 
“When you truly awaken, you have no formal merit. In the multiplicity of the relative world, you cannot find such freedom.”
“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.”
“These twelve sayings refer to the Tao as it appears to us. Wherever we look, we see its examples. The Tao as a whole, however, is hidden in namelessness.”
“Cast off completely your head and skin... the original light flashes through confusion... your footsteps are not visible on the road.”
“Those who cultivate the Tao yet still think about themselves are like people who overeat or overwork.”
“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.”
“As the Godhead is nameless, and all naming is alien to Him so also the soul is nameless; for it is here the same as God.”
“Every familiarity breeds contempt… the more a person shows, the less he has… Reticence is the seal of capacity… you must pay ransom to each you tell.”
“Let no one ask a stronger mark of an excellent love to God than that we are insensible to our own reputation.”
“The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting the subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of presenting one’s self as the proposer of any useful project.. I therefore put myself as much as I could out of sight and stated it as a scheme of ‘a number of friends.’”
“let us remain in our obscurity... let us leave to others the task of instructing mankind in their duty, and confine ourselves to the discharge of our own.”
“The few, who have known somewhat of these things, who foolishly did not keep a guard over their full hearts, who revealed their feelings and thoughts to the people, these, from time immemorial, have been crucified and burned.”
“I’ve never bothered about getting ahead… What use is there in fame and fortune? In my hut, I listen to the evening rain and stretch my legs without a care in the world.”
“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste it's fragrance on the desert air.”
“Working then in this spirit, and always seeing the false and bad in universal acceptance, yea bombast and charlatanism in the highest honor, I have long renounced the approbation of my contemporaries.”
“the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
“How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog. To tell your name the livelong day, To an admiring bog!”
“Argument is generally a waste of time and trouble. It is better to present one’s opinion and leave it to stick or no as it may happen. If sound, it will probably in the end stick, and the sticking is the main thing.”
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
“The man who makes the deepest notches on the Stick of Time is not usually preceded by a brass band.”
“I distrust official charity. All charity should be done by stealth.”
“Sometimes in the afternoon sky a white moon would creep up like a little cloud, furtive, without display, suggesting an actress who does not have to 'come on' for awhile, and so goes 'in front' in her ordinary clothes to watch the rest of the company but keeps in the background, not wishing to attract attention to herself.”
“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.”
“The truth is, I often like women. I like their unconventionality. I like their completeness. I like their anonymity.” “Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman… I like their unconventionality. I like their completeness. I like their anonymity.”
“The kindness that gazes upon itself in a mirror turns to stone and a good deed that calls itself by tender names become the parent to a curse.”
“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.”
“According to the Taoist view, honor leads to greed, discrimination, and strife… they frown on the idea of personal honor.”
“The anonymity of the city is one of its strengths as well as - carried too far - one of its weaknesses.”
“It is my rather subversive opinion that a writer's feelings of anonymity-obscurity are the second most valuable property on loan to him during his working years.”
“What difference does it make after all?--anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what’s heaven? what’s earth? All in the mind.”
“If you have no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with your acts. And above all no one pins you down with their thoughts.”
“Almost everyone struggles for fame, praise, respect; few realize the price in suffering they have to pay for these.”
“Hide until everybody goes home. Hide until everybody forgets about you. Hide until everybody dies.”
“Whenever you need reassurance, that means you have a fixed idea of what ought to be.”
“Name takes sides. Complexity limits options Hence, those who uphold nameless simplicity don’t take sides and keep their options. Open”
“Once you’re considered a legend, you can only trace the pattern of your rise for the rest of your life… it could be a real nightmare… I can’t think of anything more boring that that.”
“Fame molds itself onto you face. Then it molds your face. Fame brings you immunity from the usual rules. Problem is, if fame is a drug, its hard to kick... When I had fame, fame was killing me. Now it's gone, anonymity is killing me.”
“The sage […] realizes that things arise of their own accord, and not as the result of her own coercion or anxious striving […] so she does not feel any sense of ownership over the result of her actions.”
Comments (1)
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Shan Dao
6 years ago
The case for anonymity becomes increasingly relevant when you consider and reconcile two seemingly unreconcilable dictums:Herman Melville saying in Moby Dick, "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."and Balthasar Gracian in The Art of Worldly Wisdom, "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."
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