The Tao of the Dude Quotes

“Outside of severe hallucinogens like PCP, by far the most “dangerous” drug of all is alcohol, and aside from the fistfights, car accidents and karaoke it causes, society still celebrates it.”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. —Bertrand Russell”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. —Steven Wright”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“Erik Erikson coined the term “pseudo-speciation” to describe our xenophobic instinct. It is as if we rejected out of hand the unity of the species, setting up in its place a thousand egregious dichotomies. —Melvin Konner, Why the Reckless Survive”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought. —Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“In the split second where you understand a joke you experience a moment of “enlightenment.” This cannot be achieved by “explaining” the joke, i.e. by intellectual analysis. This must be well known to enlightened men and women, since they almost invariably show a great sense of humor. In the Tao Te Ching we read, “If it were not laughed at it would not be sufficient for the Tao.” —Fritjov Capra, The Tao of Physics”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“Forgive me my nonsense as I forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense. —Robert Frost”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“The 20th century linguistic revolution is the recognition that language is not merely a device for communicating ideas about the world, but rather a tool for bringing the world into existence in the first place. —Misia Landau”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“Beware of the pursuit of the Superhuman: it leads to an indiscriminate contempt for the Human. To a man, horses and dogs and cats are mere species, outside the moral world. Well, to the Superman, men and women are mere species too, also outside the moral world. —George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell. —Bertrand Russell”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“It’s not that the Dude believes in nothing—he’s no nihilist. It’s just that he entertains ideas so gingerly. Since he’s never angling from any fixed position, he can examine each new conceptual element without trying to chisel it into some concrete pillar of belief. Taoism calls this approach the “state of the uncarved block.”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. —Frank Zappa”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. —Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“My choice is what I chose to do And if I’m causing no harm, it shouldn’t bother you. Your choice is who you chose to be And if you’re causing no harm, then you’re alright with me. If you don’t like my fire, then don’t come around ‘Cause I’m gonna burn one down. —Ben Harper, “Burn One Down”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? —Epicurus”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“As Epicurus maintained, “A man is wealthy in proportion to the things he can do without.”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“In order for the wheel to turn, for life to be lived, impurities are needed, and the impurities of impurities in the soil, too, as is known, if it is to be fertile. Dissention, diversity, the grain of salt and mustard are needed. Fascism does not want them, forbids them…it wants everyone to be the same, and you’re not. —Primo Levi, The Periodic Table”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“While the process of evolution is often characterized in terms of dog-eat-dog competition and the “survival of the fittest,” this new research also reveals that, in fact, nice guys often finish first. Our species’ success over the eons is due to the fact that we are the most cooperative creatures on earth. —William Allman, The Stone Age Present”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“There ain’t no answer. There ain’t going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That’s the answer. —Gertrude Stein”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious. —Oscar Wilde”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense. —Mark Twain”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“Indeed it’s well known that many people don’t “get” The Big Lebowski because they find the plot wanting. Yet what makes the film such a treasure is not the story itself, nor even its characters, but the mind-blowing verbal pleasure they afford us.”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue. —Albert Einstein”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“A surprisingly good case could be made that much of culture is hallucination. The whole intent and function of ritual appears to be a group wish to hallucinate reality. —Weston La Barre”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“Blessed are the goofballs, the crazies, for they refuse to take things seriously. —Rick Stanley”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“The nap also has a deserved reputation for its spiritual benefits. The founders of the great world religions were dedicated nappers, and indeed, it was during their roadside dozes that their visions often came. The nap is a sort of easy version of meditation. Jesus was an idler. Buddha was definitely an idler. —Tom Hodgkinson, How to be Idle”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“The three great American vices seem to be efficiency, punctuality, and the desire for achievement and success. They are the things that make the Americans so unhappy and so nervous. —Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski

“Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. —Henry Adams”
― Oliver Benjamin, The Tao of the Dude: Awesome Insights of Deep Dudes from Lao Tzu to Lebowski