Quote

A net set up to catch fish may snare a duck a mantis hunting an insect may itself be set upon by a sparrow. Machinations are hidden within machinations changes arise beyond changes. So how can wit and cleverness be relied upon?

Zicheng Hong

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Zicheng Hong
Changes
Taoism
Relied
Beyond
Hunting
Insect
Within
Wit
Sparrows
Upon
Hidden
Snares
May
Fish
Cleverness
Mantis
Catch
Duck
Machinations
Fishes
Ducks
Snare
Arise
Insects
Sparrow

More quotes by Zicheng Hong

Image
A grub in filth is dirty, but it changes into a cicada and sips dew in the autumn breeze. Rotting plants have no luster, but they turn into foxfire and glow in the summer moonlight. So we know that purity emerges from impurity, and light is born from darkness.
Zicheng Hong
Image
If the mind is illumined, there is clear blue sky in a dark room. If the thoughts are muddled, there are malevolent ghosts in broad daylight.
Zicheng Hong
Image
To notice people's deceptions yet not reveal it in words, to bear people's insults without showing any change of attitude-there is endless meaning in this, and also endless function.
Zicheng Hong
Image
A drop of water has the tastes of the water of the seven seas: there is no need to experience all the ways of worldly life. The reflections of the moon on one thousand rivers are from the same moon: the mind must be full of light.
Zicheng Hong
Image
Valuing unusual conduct is not as good as being careful about ordinary actions.
Zicheng Hong
Image
When you are constantly hearing offensive words and always have some irritating matter in mind, only then do you have a whetstone for character development. If you hear only what pleases you, and deal only with what thrills you, then you are burying your life in deadly poison.
Zicheng Hong
Image
Late at night, when everyone is quiet, sit alone and gaze into the mind then you notice illusion ending and reality appearing. You gain a great sense of potential in this every time. Once you have noticed reality appearing yet find that illusion is hard to escape, you also find yourself greatly humbled.
Zicheng Hong
Image
There is no greater fortune than having few concerns, no greater misfortune than having many worries. Only those who have suffered over their concerns know the blessing of having few concerns. Only those who have calmed their minds know the misfortune of having many worries.
Zicheng Hong
Image
If you do not join the polluted, then you are pure if you reject society in search of purity, that is not purity but fanaticism.
Zicheng Hong
Image
People are considered pure of heart when they do not approach power and pomp but those who can be near without being affected are the purest of all. People are considered high-minded when they do not know how to plot and contrive but those who know how yet do not do so are the highest of all.
Zicheng Hong
Image
The sickness of indulging desires can be treated, but the sickness of clinging to abstract principles is hard to treat. Obstacles presented by events and objects can be removed, but obstacles presented by social principles are hard to remove.
Zicheng Hong
Image
In adversity, everything that surrounds you is a kind of medicine that helps you refine your conduct, yet you are unaware of it. In pleasant situations, you are faced with weapons that will tear you apart, yet you do not realize it.
Zicheng Hong
Image
Think about food on a full stomach and you find you don't care about taste. Think of lust after making love, and you find you don't care about sex. Therefore, if people always reflect on the regret they will feel afterward to forestall folly at the moment, they will be stable and will not err in action.
Zicheng Hong
Image
Virtue is the master of talent, talent is the servant of virtue. Talent without virtue is like a house where there is no master and their servant manages its affairs. How can there be no mischief?
Zicheng Hong
Image
Business and scholarship pass away with the person, but the soul is forever like new. Fame and fortune change with the generations, but the spirit is always the same. Enlightened people surely should not exchange the lasting for the ephemeral.
Zicheng Hong
Image
Blessings often give rise to injury, so be careful when things are going your way. Success may be achieved after failure, so don't just give up when you've been disappointed.
Zicheng Hong
Image
Don't be too severe in criticizing people's faults consider how much they can bear. Don't be too lofty in enjoining virtue, so people may be able to follow.
Zicheng Hong
Image
The workings of heaven are unfathomable-sometimes encouraging, sometimes suppressing. All this makes sport of heroes and tumbles the great. Enlightened people take adversity in stride and are prepared for trouble even when at ease therefore, they are not at the mercy of fate.
Zicheng Hong
Image
Warm weather fosters growth: cold weather destroys it. Thus a man with an unsympathetic temperament has a scant joy: but a man with a warm and friendly heart overflowing blessings, and his beneficence will extend to posterity.
Zicheng Hong
Image
When the rich and well-established, who should be generous, are instead spiteful and cruel, they make their behavior wretched and base in spite of their wealth and position. When the intellectually brilliant, who should be reserved, instead show off, they are ignorant and foolish in their weakness in spite of their brilliance.
Zicheng Hong