When the palace is magnificent, the fields are filled with weeds, and the granaries are empty.
Interpretation
A critique of superficial luxury at the expense of essential needs and well-being.
This quote from Laozi highlights the imbalance in society where extravagant displays of wealth and power overshadow the neglected basic necessities of life, like agriculture and food security. It serves as a reminder that true prosperity and stability arise from nurturing the foundational aspects of society rather than pursuing mere opulence.
In practice
During a speech about sustainable development, you could use this quote to emphasize the importance of agriculture.
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.
This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living and hard dying... but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice... but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.
If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a 'peace conference,' you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes.
It is not the facts which guide the conduct of men, but their opinions about facts; which may be entirely wrong. We can only make them right by discussion.
The fundamental loss of a desire for God is the heart of original sin.
Everything I wrote about wasn't about me, but about the people listening.
We [Raymond and Meursault] stared at each other without blinking, and everything came to a stop there between the sea, the sand, and the sun, and the double silence of the flute and the water. It was then that I realized that you could either shoot or not shoot.
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