When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish.
Interpretation
Patriots thrive in times of national conflict and turmoil.
This quote by Laozi suggests that in periods of strife or conflict within a nation, individuals who identify as patriots often emerge and strengthen their roles. It implies that challenges can lead to the rise of people who are willing to stand firm for their country, highlighting the paradox that disarray can foster some of the most dedicated and passionate citizens.
In practice
This quote could be used in a patriotic speech during a national crisis to inspire unity.
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 older I get the more I'm convinced that it's the purpose of politicians and journalists to say the world is very simple, whereas it's the purpose of historians to say, 'No! It's very complicated.' _x000D_ _x000D_ The job of the historian is to help give people a sense of existence in time, without which we are really not fully human.
In these times of suffering prayer is of even more help.
What if when they called a war, no one went?
Realism falls short of reality. It shrinks it, attenuates it, falsifies it; it does not take into account our basic truths and our fundamental obsessions: love, death, astonishment. It presents man in a reduced and estranged perspective. Truth is in our dreams, in the imagination.
And inasmuch as feeling, the East's gift, Is quick and transient,- comes, and lo! is gone, While Northern thought is slow and durable.
The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
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