I am good to people who are good. I am also good to people who are not good. Because Virtue is goodness.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining virtue regardless of how others behave.
Laozi's quote reflects a profound understanding of moral integrity and virtue, suggesting that one's goodness should not be contingent upon the behavior of others. By extending kindness and goodness to everyone, including those who may not reciprocate, we uphold a higher standard of virtue that can inspire change and promote peace in our interactions.
In practice
In a discussion about ethics, I might say, 'As Laozi wisely stated, I am good to people who are good and those who are not.'
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 observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.
Stillness is the altar of spirit.
Good books tell the truth, even when they're about things that never have been and never will be. They're truthful in a different way
I am convinced that the deepest desire within each of us is to be liberated from the controlling influences of our own psychic madness or patterns of fear. All other things—the disdain of ordinary life, the need to control others rather than be controlled, the craving for material goods as a means of security and protection against the winds of chaos—are external props that serve as substitutes for the real battle, which is the one waged within the individual soul.
We live in an age in which there is no heroic death.
She was the most wonderful woman for prowling about the house. How she got from one story to another was a mystery beyond solution. A lady so decorous in herself, and so highly connected, was not to be suspected of dropping over the banisters or sliding down them, yet her extraordinary facility of locomotion suggested the wild idea.
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