Paul Chiasson > Paul's Quotes

“Wild winds never last all morning
and fierce rains never last all day.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“If you don’t stand sincere by your words
how sincere can the people be?
Take great care over words, treasure them.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“A sage traveling all day
is never far from the supplies in his cart,
and however spectacular the views
he remains calm and composed.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“For things sometimes lead and sometimes follow,
sometimes sign and sometimes storm,
sometimes strengthen and sometimes weaken,
sometimes kill and sometimes die.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“What calamity is greater than no contentment,
and what flaw greater than the passion for gain.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Giving birth without possessing,
animating without subjecting,
fostering without dominating.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“You render the small vast and few many,
use integrity to repay hatred,
see the complexity in simplicity,
find the vast in the minute.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Work at things before they’ve begun
and establish order before confusion sets in,
for a tree you can barely reach around
grows from the tiniest rootlet,
a nine-tiered tower
starts as a basket of dirt,
a thousand-mile journey
begins with a single step.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“When people devote themselves to something
they always ruin it on the verge of success.
Finish with the same care you took in beginning
and you’ll avoid ruining things.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“I understand what lies hidden beneath beguiling words. I understand the trap beneath extravagant words. I understand the deceit beneath depraved words. And I understand the weariness beneath evasive words.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“All beneath Heaven is rooted in nation. Nation is rooted in family. And family is rooted in self.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“Make your learning abundant and speak of it with precision, then you will speak of essentials.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“Words that defy reality are ominous. And it’s ominous reality that confronts those who would obscure the wise and worthy.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“It’s simple: To say anything about the nature of things, you must attend to the facts, facts in their original form. The trouble with knowledge is that it keeps chiseling things away.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“All tongues savor the same flavors, all ears hear the same music, and all eyes see the same beauty.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“There’s only one way to know if people are good or evil: look at the choices they make. We each contain precious and worthless, great and small. Never injure the great for the sake of the small, or the precious for the sake of the worthless. Small people nurture what is small in them; great people nurture what is great in them.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“So it is that whenever Heaven invests a person with great responsibilities, it first tries his resolve, exhausts his muscles and bones, starves his body, leaves him destitute, and confound his every endeavor. In this way his patience and endurance are developed, and his weaknesses are overcome. We change and grow only when we make mistakes. We realize what to do only when we work through worry and confusion. And we gain people’s trust and understanding only when our inner thoughts are revealed clearly in our faces and words.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“Treat others as you would be treated. Devote yourself to that, for there’s no more direct approach to Humanity.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“Don’t do what should not be done, and don’t desire what should not be desired. Abide by this one precept, and everything else will follow.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“Integrity, wisdom, skill, intelligence – such things are forged in adversity.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“Getting something done is like digging a well. You can dig a well seventy feet deep, but if you don’t hit water it’s just an abandoned well.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“If someone stops where they should not, they’ll stop anywhere. If someone slights a person they should treat generously, they’ll slight anyone. And if someone races ahead, they retreat in a hurry.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“Words that speak of things close at hand and carry far-reaching implications – those are the good words.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“For nurturing the mind, there’s nothing like paring your desires away to a very few. If you have few desires, there may still be some capricious whims in your mind, but they’ll be few. If you have many desires, there may be some enduring principles in your mind, but they’ll be few indeed.”
― Mencius, Mencius

“If you look at their intentions, examine their motives, and scrutinize what brings them contentment – how can people hide who they are? How can they hide who they really are?”
― Confucius, The Analects

“A noble minded person is not an implement.”
― Confucius, The Analects

“The noble minded act before speak, then they speak according to their actions.”
― Confucius, The Analects

“The noble-minded are all-encompassing, not stuck in doctrines. Little people are stuck in doctrines.”
― Confucius, The Analects

“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”
― Confucius, The Sayings of Confucius

“cautiously, you avoid trouble. See all that you can – then, if you forget the perilous and”
― Confucius, The Analects