Chinese Wisdom Quotes

“Shape clay into a vessel;

It is the space within that makes it useful.

Cut doors and windows for a room;

It is the holes which make it useful.

Therefore benefit comes from what is there;

Usefulness from what is not there.”
― Laozi

“The crack in your heart allows light in. ~ GOOD FORTUNE page 238”
― Leslie Bratspis

“the human body is a miniature version of the universe - the eyes and ears are the sun and moon, breath is air, blood is rain.”
― Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

“Dengan wang kamu hanya boleh membeli buku tetapi tidak boleh membeli ilmu.”
― Pahrol Mohd Juoi

“无惧无急 (The fearless do not hurry.)”
― Eric Micha'el Leventhal

“All hells in this world are the prisons you make in your own heart; all battles must be fought there'," said Charlie. "My grandma used to say that to me.”
― Darren McKeeman, City of Apocrypha

“Nowadays,” my tour guide says, “it is a man’s world here in China. But 6000 years ago, it was a woman’s world. Man and woman don’t need to get married. Man can just visit the woman’s house at night. When you have a baby, it doesn’t matter who the father is.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“Un exemple remarquable de la pluralité des sens nous est fourni par l’interprétation des caractères idéographiques qui constituent l’écriture chinoise : toutes les significations dont ces caractères sont susceptibles peuvent se grouper autour de trois principales, qui correspondent aux trois degrés fondamentaux de la connaissance, et dont la première est d’ordre sensible, la seconde d’ordre rationnel, et la troisième d’ordre intellectuel pur ou métaphysique, ainsi, pour nous borner à un cas très simple, un même caractère pourra être employé analogiquement pour désigner à la fois le soleil, la lumière et la vérité, la nature du contexte permettant seule de reconnaître, pour chaque application, quelle est celle de ces acceptions qu’il convient d’adopter, d’où les multiples erreurs des traducteurs occidentaux.”
― René Guénon, Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines

“What remains, in fact? What else is there still right in front of us but the grass which grows and the mountains which erode, bodies which become heavy and faces which become emaciated, life which fecundates, or becomes exhausted, or rather which, while fecundating, is already starting to become exhausted? And vague expectations that crystallize into feverish passion, or else meetings that become less frequent. Or amorous complicities which, without being confessed, turn into relations of power? Or heroic revolutions which (without our being able to locate when) mutate into the privileges of the Party? Or else the wounds of yesterday which are displaced, buried and condensed, and then transcribe themselves into encrypted representation of dreams - and works which ripen in silence?”
― François Jullien, The Silent Transformations

“Follow the road to the end of the water. Sit down and watch the clouds appear.”
― Anonymous

“情感第，
晚点装。
简单第，
主权在后。
友谊第，
信仰以后。
善良第，
天后。
道德第，
国籍在后。
和平第，
后来爱国。
人性在先，其他切在后。
爱是我的宗教，人性是我的民族。”
― Abhijit Naskar, Earthquakin' Egalitarian: I Die Everyday So Your Children Can Live