Iwan Setiono > Iwan's Quotes

“Art is the most beautiful of all lies”
― Claude Debussy

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
― Hippocrates

“Sincerity is the way to Heaven.”
― Mencius

“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.”
― Confucius

“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.”
― Confucius, The Book of Rites

“Don't do unto others what you don't want done unto you.”
― Confucius

“A path is made by walking on it.”
― Chuang Tzu

“Rewards and punishment is the lowest form of education.”
― Chuang Tzu

“During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream.”
― Zhuangzi, The Butterfly as Companion: Meditations on the First Three Chapters of the Chuang Tzu

“We are born from a quiet sleep, and we die to a calm awakening”
― Chuang Tzu

“You can't discuss the ocean with a well frog - he's limited by the space he lives in. You can't discuss ice with a summer insect - he's bound to a single season.”
― Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

“The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror - going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing.”
― Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

“Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”
― Zhuangzi, The Butterfly as Companion: Meditations on the First Three Chapters of the Chuang Tzu

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
― Lao Tzu

“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
― Lao Tzu

“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”
― Lao Tzu

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
― Lao Tzu

“Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.”
― Lao Tzu

“all streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. humility gives it its power. if you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. if you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Stop leaving and you will arrive. Stop searching and you will see. Stop running away and you will be found.”
― Lao Tzu

“The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart”
― Mencius

“Love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.”
― Plato, The Symposium

“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
― Plato

“Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.”
― Plato

“Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance”
― Plato, The Republic

“The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.”
― Plato

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
― Socrates

“All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.”
― Socrates