Geese are white, crows are black. No argument will change this.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the acceptance of facts and truths that are immutable, regardless of debate or argument.
Laozi's quote highlights the importance of recognizing and accepting the unchangeable truths in life. The colors of geese and crows serve as metaphors for undeniable realities; no amount of discussion or argumentation can alter these facts. This perspective encourages a focus on acceptance rather than futile debates over matters that are clear and evident.
In practice
During a debate on social media about climate change, one could use this quote to stress the importance of accepting scientific facts.
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.
I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.
Progress imposes not only new possibilities for the future but new restrictions. It seems almost as if progress itself and our fight against the increase of entropy intrinsically must end in the downhill path from which we are trying to escape.
The certainty of a God giving meaning to life far surpasses in attractiveness the ability to behave badly with impunity. The choice would not be hard to make. But there is no choice and that is where the bitterness comes in. The absurd does not liberate; it binds.
The stress laid on upward social mobility in the United States has tended to obscure the fact that there can be more than one kind of mobility and more than one direction in which it can go. There can be ethical mobility as well as financial, and it can go down as well as up.
There are no weeds, and no worthless men. There are only bad farmers.
The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.
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