When people do not dread authorities, then a greater dread descends.
Interpretation
The quote warns that the absence of fear towards authority can lead to a more significant fear arising from other sources.
This quote by Laozi emphasizes the idea that when individuals stop fearing those in power, it opens the door to a more profound sense of dread that can emerge from chaos or lack of order. It's a reflection on the human condition and the balance between authority and the potential for disorder when that authority is no longer respected or feared.
In practice
In a discussion about political power and its implications, one might quote Laozi to illustrate the consequences of losing respect for authority.
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.
Optimists and pessimists die the exact same death, but they live very different lives!
So she was considering in her own mind...whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up & picking the daisies.
To adore the conqueror, who now beholds Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood.
We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these assumptions.
Everything we do really is just a little marker on the long road to death. And sometimes thatβs overwhelmingly depressing to me, and sometimes it makes me feel kinship and forgiveness. Weβve all got the same ending to the story. The way we make that story more elaborate, I got to respect.
'Infidel' is a term of reproach, which Christians and Mohammedans, in their modesty, agree to apply to those who differ from them.
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