Clay is fashioned into vessels; it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends. Doors and windows are cut out to make a dwelling, and on the empty space within, its use depends. Thus, while the existence of things may be good, it is the non-existence in them that makes them serviceable.
Interpretation
The utility of objects depends on their emptiness and the space within them.
This quote by Laozi emphasizes that while the material existence of things is important, it is the absence or emptiness within them that grants them purpose and utility. Just as clay vessels are defined by their hollow centers, so too are buildings made useful by the spaces they create, suggesting that emptiness plays a crucial role in functionality and meaning in life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about finding purpose in life.
If you understand others you are smart._x000D_ If you understand yourself you are illuminated._x000D_ If you overcome others you are powerful._x000D_ If you overcome yourself you have strength._x000D_ If you know how to be satisfied you are rich._x000D_ If you can act with vigor, you have a will._x000D_ If you don't lose your objectives you can be long-lasting._x000D_ If you die without loss, you are eternal.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.
In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.
Rule your mind with serenity rather than with force and manipulation.
The most interesting conversation is not about why Donald Trump lies. Many public figures lie, and he's only a severe example of a common type. The interesting conversation concerns how we come to accept those lies.
Any group of persons – prisoners, primitives, pilots, or patients – develop a life of their own that becomes meaningful, reasonable and normal once you get close to it.
Death is given in a kiss; the dearest kindnesses are fatal; and into this life, where one thing preys upon another, the child too often makes its entrance from the mother's corpse.
Apathy is a rational reaction to a system that no longer represents, hears or addresses the vast majority of people.
We have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world.
A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he can't sit on it.
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