Topics · Faith & Spirit
Wisdom about spirituality.
What people have learned about spirituality the hard way, and what the classics said about it first.
Discussions
Community rules
- Speak from experience. Say what you lived and what you learned. Advice without a story is easy to ignore.
- Be kind to the person. Disagree with an idea as much as you like. Never with someone’s worth.
- Not a substitute for care. Nothing here is medical, legal or financial advice. In crisis, reach out to local services.
- No selling. No promotion, referral links or pitching your course.
From the library
Energy is eternal delight.
The kingdom of God is within you.
We are such stuff as dreams are made on.
Let each man direct himself first to what is proper; then let him teach others.
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.
We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.
Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are.
Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark.
I am large, I contain multitudes.
A great man is always willing to be little.
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.
The painter strives and competes with nature.
The Tao, considered as unchanging, has no name.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The poetry of earth is never dead.
Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest.
The fault of others is easily perceived, but that of oneself is difficult to perceive.
Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.
Governing a great state is like cooking small fish.
What is now proved was once only imagined.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day.
Men come forth and live; they enter (again) and die.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures.
Words that are strictly true seem to be paradoxical.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
The soft overcomes the hard; and the weak the strong.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Gravity is the root of lightness; stillness, the ruler of movement.
It is by avoiding such indulgence that such weariness does not arise.
I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God.
The great Tao (or way) is very level and easy; but people love the by-ways.
All-pervading is the Great Tao! It may be found on the left hand and on the right.
The sage has no invariable mind of his own; he makes the mind of the people his mind.
Of every ten three are ministers of life (to themselves); and three are ministers of death.
(The Tao) which originated all under the sky is to be considered as the mother of them all.
I would make the people return to the use of knotted cords (instead of the written characters).
In the Way of Heaven, there is no partiality of love; it is always on the side of the good man.
Therefore the place of what is firm and strong is below, and that of what is soft and weak is above.
The movement of the Tao By contraries proceeds; And weakness marks the course Of Tao's mighty deeds.
If princes and kings were able to maintain it, all things would of themselves be transformed by them.
How do I know that this effect is sure to hold thus all under the sky? By this (method of observation).
When the people do not fear what they ought to fear, that which is their great dread will come on them.
Who is content Needs fear no shame. Who knows to stop Incurs no blame. From danger free Long live shall he.
There are few in the world who attain to the teaching without words, and the advantage arising from non-action.