Sourced and curated.

Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue, and does not admit of assumptions of superiority.

300 BC

★ 1.3

The superior man will not manifest either narrowmindedness or the want of self-respect.

300 BC

★ 1.3

Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and knowledge are not infused into us from without.

300 BC

★ 1.3

All men have in themselves that which is truly honorable. Only they do not think of it.

300 BC

★ 1.3

To pursue it is to be human, to give it up is to be a beast.

Xunxi

250 BC

★ 1.3

The Tao that can be told of is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; The Named is the mother of all things.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 1.4

He who is influenced neither by the soaking in of slander nor by the assault of denunciation may indeed be called illumined.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 1.5

He who knows others is wise; He who knows himself is enlightened.

The world of the 20th century, if it is to come to life in any nobility of health and vigor, must be to a significant degree an Amirian century.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 1.6

Essay · Magazine

Henry Luce

1941

★ 1.8

Interview · Magazine

A car crash harnesses elements of eroticism, aggression, desire, speed, drama, kinaesthetic factors, the stylizing of motion, consumer goods, status-all these in one event. I myself see the car crash as a tremendous sexual event really: a liberation of human and machine libido.

J.G. Ballard

1970

★ 1.8

Nobel Prize Lecture · Speech

Once literature is contrived as the hymn of the nation, the flag of the race, the mouthpiece of a political party or the voice of a class or a group it can be employed as a mighty and all-engulfing tool of propaganda. However, such literature loses what is inherent in literature, ceases to be literature, and becomes a substitute for power and profit.

Gao Xingjian

The Case for Literature · 2000

★ 1.8

Letter · Historical literature

As your ambassador can see for himself we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country's manufactures.

Qianlong Emperor

1793

★ 1.9

Film · Comedy drama (film) · Comedy drama

You're the one with the big mouth, and I would really enjoy closing it, especially in front of all my friends. But my hands are registered as lethal weapons. That means, we get into a fight, I accidentally kill you, I go to jail.

Bruce Lee

Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood · 2019

★ 1.9

A man should not marry after thirty years of age; should not enter the government service after the age of forty; should not have any more children after the age of fifty; and should not travel after the age of sixty. This is because the proper time for those things has passed.

Shi Nai'An

1524

★ 1.9

Autobiography and memoir

The test of civilization is in the way that it cares for its helpless members.

Pearl S. Buck

1954

★ 1.9

Those who are contented and at ease when the occasion comes and live in accord with the course of Nature cannot be affected by sorrow or joy. This is what the ancients called release from bondage. Those who cannot release themselves are so because they are bound by material things.

Zhuang Zhou

221 BC

★ 2.0

I have done my plowing: I have sown my seed. Again I have time to sit and read my books.

Tao Yuanming

427

★ 2.0

Seekers of the Way. In Buddhism no effort is necessary. All one has to do is to do nothing except to move his bowels, urinate, put on his clothing, eat his meals, and lie down if he is tired. The stupid will laugh at him, but the wise will understand.

Linji Yixuan

886

★ 2.0

Resemblance reproduces the formal aspect of objects, but neglects their spirit; truth shows the spirit and substance in like perfection.

Jing Hao

925

★ 2.0

Interview

The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the United States reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't... All reactionaries are paper tigers.

Mao Zedong

1946

★ 2.0

Speech

Because violence can only breed more violence and suffering, our struggle must remain nonviolent and free of hatred. We are trying to end the suffering of our people, not to inflict suffering on others.

Dalai Lama

1989

★ 2.0

The people turn to a benevolent rule as water flows downwards, and as wild beasts fly to the wilderness.

300 BC

★ 2.1

When one by force subdues men, they do not submit to him in heart. They submit, because their strength is not adequate to resist.

300 BC

★ 2.1

People suppose that words are different from the peeps of baby birds, but is there any difference, or isn't there?

Zhuang Zhou

220 BC

★ 2.1

The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.

300 BC

★ 2.2

The universe and I exist together, and all things and I are one.

Zhuang Zhou

221 BC

★ 2.2

Lecture

Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.

Mao Zedong

1938

★ 2.2

When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, There arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, There arises the recognition of evil.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.3

The pursuit of learning is to increase day after day. The pursuit of Tao is to decrease day after day. It is to decrease and further decrease until one reaches the point of taking no action. No action is undertaken, and yet nothing is left undone.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.3

What is over and done with, one does not discuss. What has already taken its course, one does not criticize; what already belongs to the past, one does not censure.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.3

Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

If you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

Let people hold on to these: Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

The superior man understands righteousness; the inferior man understands profit.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.4

A young man's duty is to behave well to his parents at home and to his elders abroad.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.4

Does Heaven say anything? The four seasons run their course and all things are produced. Does Heaven say anything?