Tao Te Ching
The Prophet
Quotes from The Prophet
“A seeker of silences am I, and what treasure have I found in silences”
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“A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings.”
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“all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished”
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“All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.”
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“And think not that you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.”
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“Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face... eternity gazing at itself in a mirror... you are eternity and you are the mirror.”
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“Beauty is not a need but an ecstasy... a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.”
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“break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened”
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“But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you.”
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“For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?... And what is fear of need but need itself?”
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“For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.”
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50. Claws and Swords
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“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”
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“Gifts from the singers and dancers - though fashioned of dreams, is raiment and food for your soul”
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“Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain?”
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“How shall you punish those whose remorse is already grater than their misdeeds?”
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“if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.”
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“If you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking, you shall not receive.”
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“If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life”
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“In the depth of your hopes and desires likes your silent knowledge... like seeds dreaming beneath the snow”
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“In the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”
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“In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness.”
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“Is not religion all deeds and all reflection... a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul?”
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“It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied - but only if in love and kindly justice or it will only lead some to greed and others to hunger”
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“It is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.”
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“Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.”
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“Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balance.”
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“Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.”
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“Reason alone confines; passion unattended burns to destruction… rest in reason and move in passion.”
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“self is a sea boundless and measureless”
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“that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.”
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“The kindness that gazes upon itself in a mirror turns to stone and a good deed that calls itself by tender names become the parent to a curse.”
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“the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master... murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral”
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“the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied”
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“The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked… the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured.”
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“the seat of fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.”
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“The selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filed with your tears.”
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“The vision of one person lends not its wings to another… no one can teach you anything that doesn’t already lie half asleep in the dawning of your understanding.”
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“They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.”
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“they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun”
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“They who define their conduct by ethics imprison their song-bird in a cage.”
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“Though in your winter you deny your spring... you are also as strong as your strongest link.”
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“Thought is a bird of space that in a cage of words cannot fly”
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“Too proud indeed am I to receive wages, but not gifts.”
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“Trust the dreams for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.”
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“We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side.”
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“What is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?”
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“What is word knowledge but a shadow of wordless knowledge?”
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“When you have reached the mountain top, only then will you begin to climb.”
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“When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music... Work is love made visible.”
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“Yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream… let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.”
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“You are not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to houses or fields. That which is you dwells above the mountain and roves with the wind.”
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“You can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness”
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“You prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom, even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.”
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“You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams and it is well you should.”
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“your body is the harp of your soul... [you] bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.”
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“Your daily life is your temple and your religion.”
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“Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honor.”
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“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding... watch with serenity through the winders of your grief.”
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