To become learned, each day add something. To become enlightened, each day drop something
Interpretation
Continuous learning is essential for knowledge, while enlightenment comes from letting go of ignorance.
This quote by Laozi emphasizes the dual nature of personal growth: acquiring knowledge through learning new things every day while also achieving enlightenment by shedding unnecessary thoughts or beliefs. It suggests that wisdom involves both the accumulation of information and the discernment to know what to release, fostering a balanced approach to personal development.
In practice
During a seminar on personal development, the speaker used this quote to encourage attendees to embrace both learning and letting go of old beliefs.
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.
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
The Fremen were supreme in that quality the ancients called "spannungsbogen" -- which is the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing.
Disability is an art - an ingenious way to live.
The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own Lures. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.
Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.
Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground.
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