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.
Interpretation
Water symbolizes resilience and strength through adaptability and perseverance.
This quote by Laozi highlights the paradoxical nature of water as both meek and powerful. While water may appear weak and yielding, its ability to overcome obstacles and erode hard materials demonstrates that true strength often lies in resilience and adaptability. The quote suggests that softness can be a formidable force when it persists against rigid structures, encouraging a deeper understanding of strength and submission in various aspects of life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming challenges, this quote can illustrate how we can be strong by being flexible.
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.
Rule your mind with serenity rather than with force and manipulation.
He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.
The chief reason warfare is still with us is neither a secret death-wish of the human species, nor an irrepressible instinct of aggression, nor, finally and more plausibly, the serious economic and social dangers inherent in disarmament, but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene.
Try to be free: you will die of hunger.
XXIX Traveler, there is no path. The path is made by walking. Traveller, the path is your tracks And nothing more. Traveller, there is no path The path is made by walking. By walking you make a path And turning, you look back At a way you will never tread again Traveller, there is no road Only wakes in the sea.
Civilizations can only be understood by those who are civilized.
He [Stephen Douglas] is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a right to hold them; that he is penetrating, so far as lies in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty, when he is in every possible way preparing the public mind, by his vast influence, for making the institution of slavery perpetual and national.
The world as pure object is something that is not there. It is not a reality outside us for which we exist....It is a living and self-creating mystery of which I am myself a part, to which I am myself, my own unique door.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.