Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath.
Interpretation
Happiness and misery are interconnected, with one giving context to the other.
This quote by Laozi highlights the duality of human emotions, suggesting that happiness cannot be fully appreciated without the experience of misery. It implies that the presence of suffering and challenges enriches our understanding of joy, indicating that these two states are inextricably linked and define each other.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming adversity, one could emphasize how difficult times can lead to deeper appreciation for joyful moments.
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.
A faith without some doubts is like a human body with no antobodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.
. . . the weal of the race, and the cause of humanity, here and now, are enough To give life meaning and death as well.
Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance or not.
faith without doubt is addiction
It's politely assumed that democracy is a means of containing and restraining violence. But violence comes not from genes but from ideas
As we have sought through the centuries to define ourselves as human beings and as nations through the prisms of history and literature, no small part of that effort has drawn us to the subject of war. We might even say that the humanities began with war and from war, and have remained entwined with it ever since.
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