Mr Tao Quotes

The sun
shines in a bucket of water
and doesn't
get wet. ~ Brian Taylor

The truly great man dwells on what is real and not what is on the surface. ~ Laozi

I'm not being secretive about anything. I just actually don't have opinions about society. ~ Tao Lin

I never thought anything about age. I believed sincerely and still do, that there's nothing I cannot do. I believe that all the power in the universe is right inside me. ~ Tao Porchon-Lynch

The Master has no mind of her own. She works with the mind of the people. She is good to people who are good. She is also good to people who aren't good. This is true goodness. She trusts people who are trustworthy. She also trusts people who aren't trustworthy. This is true trust. The Master's mind is like space. People don't understand her. They look to her and wait. She treats them like her own children. ~ Laozi

Someone who seeks the Way doesn't look beyond himself. ~ Bodhidharma

It comes out from no source, it goes back in through no aperture. It has reality yet no place where it resides; it has duration yet no beginning or end. Something emerges, though through no aperture - this refers to the fact that it has reality. It has reality yet there is no place where it resides - this refers to the dimension of space. It has duration but no beginning or end - this refers to the dimension of time. There is life, there is death, there is a coming out, there is a going back in - yet in the coming out and going back its form is never seen. This is called the Heavenly Gate. The Heavenly Gate is nonbeing. The ten thousand things come forth from nonbeing. Being cannot create being out of being; inevitably it must come forth from nonbeing. Nonbeing is absolute nonbeing, and it is here that the sage hides himself. ~ Zhuangzi

Sorry, I'd love to hang out with you but this alcohol isn't going to drink itself into incoherence and liver failure ~ Tao Lin

I'm a disciple of the Tao of Peter Parker, obviously, ~ Jim Butcher

I don't know what to say about Asians. I think everyone is "racist," to differing degrees, in that everyone's brain will automatically associate information with other information, based on the information they are looking at (for example skin color, bone structure), but I think focusing on race in any manner that isn't neutral or self-aware probably increases racism. ~ Tao Lin

Fishes are born in water Man is born in Tao. If fishes, born in water, Seek the deep shadow Of pond and pool, All their needs Are satisfied. If man, born in Tao, Sinks into the deep shadow Of non-action To forget aggression and concern, He lacks nothing His life is secure. Moral: All the fish needs Is to get lost in water. All man needs is to get lost In Tao. ~ Thomas Merton

Force is followed by loss of strength. This is not the way of the Tao. That which goes against the Tao comes to an early end. ~ Laozi

There's a source, there's a perennial source from which all things come forth. We call it the Godhead, Nirvana, the Tao, enlightenment. It's big; it's bright; it's perfect, as are all of its children, as are we. ~ Frederick Lenz

I wouldn't think of my characters' moralities at all. And I think I identify fully with every main character I've written about and would say that I am them pretty much. So in terms of that I don't think I'm similar to Bret Easton Ellis . ~ Tao Lin

The knowledge of the ancients was perfect. How perfect? I will tell you. At first they did not yet know that there were things. This is the most perfect knowledge; nothing can be added. Next they knew things but did not yet make distinctions between them. Next they made distinctions between them but did not yet pass judgements upon them. When judgement was passed, Tao was destroyed. With the destruction of Tao, individual preferences come into being. ~ Raymond M. Smullyan

The eye of Ego to the eye of Tao ~ Ilchi Lee

We may be floating on Tao, but there is nothing wrong with steering. If Tao is like a river, it is certainly good to know where the rocks are. ~ Ming-Dao Deng

Zhaozhou often quoted this saying by Sengcan: "The great way is not difficult if you just don't pick and choose. ~ John Tarrant

I like Bret Easton Ellis' sense of humor. I feel like mine is sometimes similar to his. And how his characters sometimes seem really confused in a humorous manner. I like that. And I have that sometimes in my characters. ~ Tao Lin

The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long. ~ Lao-Tzu

To understand the limitation of things, desire them. ~ Lao-Tzu

Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself. ~ Lao-Tzu

Ultimately you should follow advice not because someone tells you to, but because it was something that you already knew you should be doing. ~ Terence Tao

The more you give up, the more you can't do. ~ Tao Exo

Tao sidled up to Ryan as they approached the buffet. "Quick question," the Head Enforcer asked quietly. "What would happen if I asked Makenna out?"
With a calm he didn't feel, Ryan said, "I'd rip out your throat before the last word escaped your mouth."
Tao nodded. "Thought so. ~ Suzanne Wright

I was chosen for 'Wolverine' because there weren't any other Japanese actresses available who could speak English. With 'Batman v Superman' and 'Hannibal,' I got the roles as a result of previous work I'd done, not just because of my nationality. ~ Tao Okamoto

When the Great Tao (Way or Method) ceased to be observed, benevolence and righteousness came into vogue. ~ Lao-Tzu

The grace of Tao
and divine nature (Te)
are not ordered
but eternal spontaneous
action of the One ~ Lao-Tzu

Darkness, whether in mood or in night, is natural. So if we flow with the black bile of melancholia and endure the terrible darkness of depression, eventually we will break through into the light of joy. This is the Tao (the Way) of darkness or depression
this is the Mystery of its evolution. ~ Arnold Mindell

I tried to make sense of the Four Books,
until love arrived,
and it all became a single syllable. ~ Yunus Emre

Tao is beyond words and beyond understanding. Words may be used to speak of it, but they cannot contain it. Tao existed before words and names, before heaven and earth, before the ten thousand things. It is the unlimited father and mother of all limited things. Therefore, to see beyond boundaries to the subtle heart of things, dispense with names, with concepts, with expectations and ambitions and differences. Tao and its many manifestations arise from the same source: subtle wonder within mysterious darkness. This is the beginning of all understanding. ~ Laozi

When you look at the clouds they are not symmetrical. They do not form fours and they do not come along in cubes, but you know at once that they are not a mess. [...] They are wiggly but in a way, orderly, although it is difficult for us to describe that kind of order. Now, take a look at yourselves. You are all wiggly. [...] We are just like clouds, rocks and stars. Look at the way the stars are arranged. Do you criticize the way the stars are arranged? ~ Alan W. Watts

This world has no need for weapons,
Which soon turn on themselves.
Where armies camp, nettles grow;
After each war, years of famine.

The most fruitful outcome
Does not depend on force,
But succeeds without arrogance
Without hostility
Without pride
Without resistance
Without violence. ~ Lao Tzu

I don't know what Douglas Coupland thinks about his writing. I've read maybe one page of one of his books and didn't think I was similar to him. But it seems like people just compare you to anyone, pretty much. ~ Tao Lin

Yielding is the way of the Tao. ~ Laozi

The Tao, when brightest seen, seems light to lack;
Who progress in it makes, seems drawing back;
Its even way is like a rugged track.
Its highest virtue from the vale doth rise;
Its greatest beauty seems to offend the eyes;
And he has most whose lot the least supplies.
Its firmest virtue seems but poor and low;
Its solid truth seems change to undergo;
Its largest square doth yet no corner show
A vessel great, it is the slowest made;
Loud is its sound, but never word it said;
A semblance great, the shadow of a shade. ~ Lao-Tzu

The Tao has no place for pettiness, and nor has Virtue. Pettiness is dangerous to Virtue; pettiness is dangerous to the Tao. It is said, rectify yourself and be done. ~ Zhuangzi

Misdirection. False signals. Spreading confusion. This is the Tao of deception. ~ David Ignatius

With a combination of proper lighting and climate control he managed to achieve a different ecological niche in each gallery. In the African section, where the imbrications of Augustine, Mafouz and Okri lay decomposing, he grew sorghum and Dioscorea yams. In the Chinese gallery where the Tao Te Ching and countless Confucian annotations moldered, he grew rice, crab apples and barley. Over the poems of Neruda and Borges himself, he grew potatoes. Each plant in this new Eden he lovingly tainted with the virus of civilization

- from the short story "Resurrection ~ Victor Fernando R. Ocampo

I won," said Chelsea's dad, and went to give Chelsea a high-five, but missed, as they were standing too close.
"My fault," he said. "That was my fault."
"Oh," Chelsea said.
And he stepped back a little and tried again, but Chelsea, distracted now by something - maybe the plant in the far corner, standing and waiting like a person in a dream; or maybe the green shoe or some other thing that was out there and longing, to be looked at, and taken - wasn't ready, and their hands, his then hers, passed through the air in a kind of wave, a little goodbye. ~ Tao Lin

The Tao principle is what happens of itself. ~ Laozi

I felt confused, to some degree, by everything - but in a delayed manner, in that I seemed to be repeatedly realizing that I felt confused, instead of feeling directly confused ~ Tao Lin

One who is too insistent on his own views, finds few to agree with him. ~ Lao-Tzu