Tao Te Ching
Themes
Thoughts about the world's most influential thoughts
Enlightened insights become words of wisdom that grow meaningfulness and evolve the universe of collective consciousness. These words and sentences with the power to spark deep insight and life-changing epiphanies come down to us through the ages from every place, culture, religion, and philosophy.
George Seldes described how, "The biographies of many notable men tell us that one great thought in one paragraph, or on one page, or, in an amazing case, one great phase, was enough to change the career of its reader, a great man."
Let us guard them well and as Samuel Coleridge said in the late 18th century,
“Let every book-worm, when in any fragrant, scarce old tome, he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it the widest circulation that newspapers and magazines, penny and halfpenny, can afford.”
And as A.A. Milne says,
“A quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business."
But a quote (like this one) can also inspire a deeper level of thinking, a slight mind-stopping long enough for a subversive idea to slip through, for a status-quo threatening tiny doubt to emerge and spark an innovating whiff of creativity.
Aggression
(79 quotes)
Agriculture
(75 quotes)
Aloneness / Solitude
(80 quotes)
Ambition
(78 quotes)
Anger
(79 quotes)
Anonymity
(76 quotes)
Appreciation
(79 quotes)
Arrogance and Pride
(84 quotes)
Art
(77 quotes)
Authentic Presence
(86 quotes)
Awakened Awareness
(109 quotes)
Basic Goodness
(87 quotes)
Beauty
(112 quotes)
Belief
(123 quotes)
Blame and Scapegoating
(75 quotes)
Books
(88 quotes)
Buddhism
(76 quotes)
Business
(79 quotes)
Butterfly
(72 quotes)
Capitalism
(78 quotes)
Carpe diem
(90 quotes)
Cause and Effect
(127 quotes)
Change
(109 quotes)
Christianity
(108 quotes)
Citizens of the World
(108 quotes)
Civilization
(76 quotes)
Compassion
(93 quotes)
Competition
(79 quotes)
Complaint
(71 quotes)
Confidence
(93 quotes)
Conflict
(80 quotes)
Conformity
(113 quotes)
Confucianism
(64 quotes)
Confusion
(82 quotes)
Consumerism
(80 quotes)
Contemplation
(75 quotes)
Continuity
(75 quotes)
Control
(77 quotes)
Crazy Wisdom
(129 quotes)
Creativity
(90 quotes)
Crime
(73 quotes)
Culture
(75 quotes)
Curiosity
(74 quotes)
Death and Dying
(159 quotes)
Deception
(120 quotes)
Delusion
(83 quotes)
Democracy
(96 quotes)
Desire
(107 quotes)
Doubt
(75 quotes)
Dream
(123 quotes)
Duality and Non-duality
(114 quotes)
Economics
(79 quotes)
Education
(167 quotes)
Egolessness
(118 quotes)
Emptiness
(97 quotes)
Enemy
(81 quotes)
Enlightenment
(76 quotes)
Entertainment
(78 quotes)
Equality
(79 quotes)
Equanimity
(76 quotes)
Evil
(95 quotes)
Evolution
(78 quotes)
Failure
(85 quotes)
Fame
(81 quotes)
Family
(77 quotes)
Fanaticism
(86 quotes)
Fate / Destiny
(82 quotes)
Fear
(117 quotes)
Feminine Principle
(119 quotes)
Forget
(76 quotes)
Free Will
(65 quotes)
Freedom
(118 quotes)
Friendship
(94 quotes)
Gardening
(76 quotes)
God
(120 quotes)
Golden Chains
(94 quotes)
Golden Rule
(79 quotes)
Government
(93 quotes)
Greed
(80 quotes)
Habitual Patterns
(89 quotes)
Happiness
(133 quotes)
Hate
(73 quotes)
Health
(121 quotes)
Here and Now
(81 quotes)
Hinduism
(58 quotes)
History
(102 quotes)
Hope
(72 quotes)
Humility
(76 quotes)
Idiot Compassion
(77 quotes)
Ignorance
(84 quotes)
Illusion
(92 quotes)
Imagination
(77 quotes)
Immortality
(87 quotes)
Impermanence
(77 quotes)
Indra's Net
(73 quotes)
Inscrutable
(91 quotes)
Inspiration
(93 quotes)
Integrity
(125 quotes)
Islam الإسلام
(63 quotes)
Journey Without Goal
(92 quotes)
Judaism
(74 quotes)
Justice
(75 quotes)
Karma
(90 quotes)
Kindness
(75 quotes)
Know Yourself
(107 quotes)
Laughter and Humor
(76 quotes)
Law and Order
(108 quotes)
Leadership
(90 quotes)
Less is More
(145 quotes)
Letting Go
(78 quotes)
Lies
(88 quotes)
Livelihood
(118 quotes)
Longevity
(76 quotes)
Love
(119 quotes)
Magic
(73 quotes)
Mandala Principle
(76 quotes)
Marriage
(127 quotes)
Masculine Principle
(79 quotes)
Materialism
(93 quotes)
Meaningfulness
(129 quotes)
Medicine
(82 quotes)
Meditation
(82 quotes)
Memory
(85 quotes)
Middle Way
(76 quotes)
Mind
(80 quotes)
Mistakes
(85 quotes)
Money
(82 quotes)
Moon
(81 quotes)
Moral Freedom
(111 quotes)
Music
(81 quotes)
Nationalism
(78 quotes)
Natural Hierarchy
(77 quotes)
Nature, Environment
(81 quotes)
No Trace
(74 quotes)
Non-Thought
(73 quotes)
Obstacles
(75 quotes)
Old Age
(99 quotes)
One Taste
(75 quotes)
Oneness
(91 quotes)
Openness
(80 quotes)
Opinion
(81 quotes)
Ordinary Mind
(76 quotes)
Paradox
(135 quotes)
Patience
(77 quotes)
Peace
(72 quotes)
Perennial Philosophy
(82 quotes)
Perseverance
(80 quotes)
Philosophy
(73 quotes)
Pleasure
(83 quotes)
Pluralism
(78 quotes)
Poetry
(77 quotes)
Politics and Politicians
(136 quotes)
Poverty
(77 quotes)
Power
(123 quotes)
Problems
(114 quotes)
Progress
(86 quotes)
Projection
(80 quotes)
Prostitution
(49 quotes)
Punishment
(76 quotes)
Reality
(96 quotes)
Reason
(104 quotes)
Religion
(167 quotes)
Revolution
(74 quotes)
Rising Sun World
(77 quotes)
Sacred World
(111 quotes)
Science
(96 quotes)
Setting Sun World
(120 quotes)
Sex
(120 quotes)
Shambhala
(76 quotes)
Silence and Stillness
(81 quotes)
Simplicity
(79 quotes)
Skillful Means
(86 quotes)
Slavery
(96 quotes)
Socialism
(77 quotes)
Soul-Selling, Corruption
(88 quotes)
Spiritual Materialism
(78 quotes)
Strategy
(88 quotes)
Success
(113 quotes)
Suffering
(99 quotes)
Symbols and Myths
(82 quotes)
Taoism
(60 quotes)
Teachers
(74 quotes)
Technology
(82 quotes)
Time
(87 quotes)
Travel
(113 quotes)
True Self
(93 quotes)
Truth
(147 quotes)
Victory
(74 quotes)
Virtue
(83 quotes)
War
(133 quotes)
Warriors
(74 quotes)
Water
(79 quotes)
Wealth
(129 quotes)
Wisdom
(112 quotes)
Words or the sense?
(188 quotes)
Wu Wei
(109 quotes)
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