Topics · Love & People
Wisdom about pets & animals.
What people have learned about pets & animals the hard way, and what the classics said about it first.
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From the library
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
When the Tao prevails in the world, they send back their swift horses to (draw) the dung-carts. When the Tao is disregarded in the world, the war-horses breed in the border lands.
As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
He who has in himself abundantly the attributes (of the Tao) is like an infant. Poisonous insects will not sting him; fierce beasts will not seize him; birds of prey will not strike him.
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back.
There should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the voices of the fowls and dogs should be heard all the way from it to us, but I would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any intercourse with it.
The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord.
Heaven and earth do not act from (the impulse of) any wish to be benevolent; they deal with all things as the dogs of grass are dealt with. The sages do not act from (any wish to be) benevolent; they deal with the people as the dogs of grass are dealt with.
As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.
In loving the people and ruling the state, cannot he proceed without any (purpose of) action? In the opening and shutting of his gates of heaven, cannot he do so as a female bird? While his intelligence reaches in every direction, cannot he (appear to) be without knowledge?
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace, they can be kept from separating. When one gives undivided attention to the (vital) breath, and brings it to the utmost degree of pliancy, he can become as a (tender) babe. When he has cleansed away the most mysterious sights (of his imagination), he can become without a flaw.
Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.
Therefore when the sovereign occupies his place as the Son of Heaven, and he has appointed his three ducal ministers, though (a prince) were to send in a round symbol-of-rank large enough to fill both the hands, and that as the precursor of the team of horses (in the court-yard), such an offering would not be equal to (a lesson of) this Tao, which one might present on his knees.
As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.
A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.