Mold clay into a bowl. The empty space makes it useful.
Interpretation
Utility comes from the emptiness within a structure, as exemplified by a bowl.
This quote by Laozi illustrates the idea that, in order to create something useful, it is essential to incorporate emptiness or void, much like how a bowl derives its function from its hollow space. The quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing that not just the material form but the absence within it contributes significantly to its purpose and effectiveness.
In practice
In a discussion about design, one might say this quote to emphasize the importance of negative space.
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.
You're born naked, and the rest is drag! EVERYBODY is in drag. Whether you're a man or a woman. It just depends on how extreme you wanna go.
Why does no one confess his sins? Because he is yet in them. It is for a man who has awoke from sleep to tell his dreams.
Laws are the terms by which independent and isolated men united to form a society, once they tired of living in a perpetual state of war where the enjoyment of liberty was rendered useless by the uncertainty of its preservation. They sacrificed a portion of this liberty so that they could enjoy the remainder in security and peace.
Ending poverty calls for humility, honesty, freedom from ideology and refusal to accept cruel simplicities about anyone's human potential. It requires listening to the wisdom and cutting the nonsense from both the Right and the Left.
Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.
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