I just recently purchased two books (both of which I highly recommend, and I'm not even usually a book person), my favourite being Best Loved Chinese Proverbs (2nd Edition). And it is just mind boggling how powerful the wisdom surging from these century old saying can provide.
More specifically, here are some of my favourite proverbs that struck me the hardest:
• A feather's length of error can lead one a thousand miles astray. [adversity]
• Wait long, strike fast. [strategy]
• A fish not caught by a hook may be caught by a net. [strategy]
• Do not swat the fly when it rests on the tiger's head. [strategy]
• In war, there can never be too much deception. [strategy]
• Beat the grass to scare the snakes. [strategy]
• Use every step as your base. [strategy]
• True success comes from within. Do not hope to strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. [success]
• The darker the night, the brighter the stars. [inspiration]
• Limits only pertain to those who believe in them. [inspiration]
It's insane just how applicable and meaningful a lot of the wisdom that China's great minds have articulated over so many years is still so timeless and valuable. Anyways take it easy everyone!
I hate to rain on your parade, but this is a lot like The Art of War, most of these things are BASIC common sense... I mean unless you really lack common sense, these just don't seem that amazing to me.
I hate to rain on your parade, but this is a lot like The Art of War, most of these things are BASIC common sense... I mean unless you really lack common sense, these just don't seem that amazing to me.
Some of our greatest revelations comes from the head slappingly simple. There is a lot of hidden depth that the words themselves can not fully convey.
Nice post These are some good quotes. I agree 100% with you, that many of the most important lessons are ones that are very simple once learned. This applies to science as well I think.
I hate to rain on your parade, but this is a lot like The Art of War, most of these things are BASIC common sense... I mean unless you really lack common sense, these just don't seem that amazing to me.
Some of our greatest revelations comes from the head slappingly simple. There is a lot of hidden depth that the words themselves can not fully convey.
On the other hand, many of the simplistic sayings people love have no depth at all. A statement isn't wise just because it's trite.
On May 01 2011 11:03 FODDER~ wrote: • A feather's length of error can lead one a thousand miles astray. [adversity]
I'm pretty sure taking the wrong exit won't lead me a thousand miles astray. As for how this metaphor relates to life? I don't know, wrong choices don't always result in geographical relocation.
• A fish not caught by a hook may be caught by a net. [strategy]
That seems fairly obvious. It can also be caught with your hand.
• Do not swat the fly when it rests on the tiger's head. [strategy]
This is very useful. I am constantly swatting flies and not checking whether they have landed on ferocious beasts or not. I will keep this in mind next time.
• Use every step as your base. [strategy]
I have no idea what this means.
• True success comes from within. Do not hope to strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. [success]
This is not helpful at all. Although success may come from within, weakening the strong is actually a fairly useful tactic. Has this person never heard of starving your enemy? I am pretty sure that fits the definition of weakening the strong. The entire idea of guerrilla warfare works under this principle.
• The darker the night, the brighter the stars. [inspiration]
This quote is frankly just stupid. I don't see how this inspiring, maybe someone can help me out with this.
• Limits only pertain to those who believe in them. [inspiration]
This quote is not just stupid, but insulting. Try telling the 2 billion starving in this world that quote.
The few I did not quote were ok I guess.
I really hate the idea that one or two sentences is supposed to give you some magic wisdom. Life is not simple, and simplifying it unnecessarily often causes problems. Life is often complicated and one word suggestions or mantras rarely if ever manage to encapsulate what you need to know. Even if they do work the majority of the time, sticking to a simple mantra can suck the creativity out of you if the few percent that are different you actually need to do something different.
Plus, the only time that they are useful, they are so vague that they don't even matter anyway. For example "Practice makes perfect." Yeah I get it, more experience with something will lead to a greater skill with that thing. But practicing for a long time will not necessarily make you an Olympic swimmer. If you want to try, thats great, and more power to you if you succeed. Being grounded helps when you fail though, which most people inevitably do. Plus, not all practice is equal. It is entirely possible that you are practicing wrong, and gaining bad experience. "Practice makes perfect" may be kind of true, but it is also effectively useless, just like the majority of these quotes.
On May 01 2011 11:03 FODDER~ wrote: • The darker the night, the brighter the stars. [inspiration]
This quote is frankly just stupid. I don't see how this inspiring, maybe someone can help me out with this.
The quote is not what's inspiring, its a quote about inspiration.
edit - quote fail
That makes it sound even more useless.
Please elaborate.
Unless I misunderstood c3berUs, it is a quote about inspiration instead of a quote meant to inspire. So a metaphor about the stars in the sky is supposed to describe inspiration in less than 20 words. How is that not useless? I literally cannot think of a single way in which that quote about inspiration, or any one sentence quote describing inspiration (unless it is giving a definition), can be useful.
Of course, if I misunderstood c3berUs and he meant something different, then that doesn't apply.
I'm pretty sure taking the wrong exit won't lead me a thousand miles astray. As for how this metaphor relates to life? I don't know, wrong choices don't always result in geographical relocation.
You seem to not understand that each and every one of these quotes from the book are almost all not literal. By a thousand miles astray it means off course from your goals or intentions. It's an indirect relation to the showball effect of how one miniscule error can lead to exponential adversities.
flowSthead:
That seems fairly obvious. It can also be caught with your hand.
Again you are trying to solidify a philosophical standpoint. Something that is intangible and not supposed to be taken literally. What this quote is going for is the idea that a good plan has a fallback and can accomedate for all outcomes (fish movements) whereas the hook in this instance is a single forced and fixated strategy.
flowShead:
This is very useful. I am constantly swatting flies and not checking whether they have landed on ferocious beasts or not. I will keep this in mind next time.
Again you seem to not be able to grasp basic concepts that are not necessarily literal. This quote is warning that a good plan with bad timeings can be self-destructive.
flowSthead:
I have no idea what this means.
It's rather simple. What it advocates is gradual advancements and fortification upon every small victory.
flowSthead:
This is not helpful at all. Although success may come from within, weakening the strong is actually a fairly useful tactic. Has this person never heard of starving your enemy? I am pretty sure that fits the definition of weakening the strong. The entire idea of guerrilla warfare works under this principle.
What this quote is advocating is higher success can come from one's own improvement and strength rather than relying on your opposition being incompetent or worse than you. This is assumeing your opposition is better than you.
flowSthead:
This quote is frankly just stupid. I don't see how this inspiring, maybe someone can help me out with this.
It is an earlier alternate to the famous, "It's always darkest before the dawn," inspirational/bounce back quote. It's meant to highlight the existence of silver lineings even in your darkest hours.
flowSthead:
This quote is not just stupid, but insulting. Try telling the 2 billion starving in this world that quote.
I'll admit the world isn't perfect. But anything rarely is. But having a can do attitude and positive outlook regardless of who you are, where you are from, or what hardships you are faceing at any rage can certaintly help if not eventually overcome the hurdles they are presented with.
Anyways hope I was able to help you understand Chinese philosophy a little bit better. You definately seem to be far too materialistic in your thought process to understand their wisdom (no offense intended at all, we're all different and think differently).
On May 01 2011 11:03 FODDER~ wrote: • The darker the night, the brighter the stars. [inspiration]
This quote is frankly just stupid. I don't see how this inspiring, maybe someone can help me out with this.
The quote is not what's inspiring, its a quote about inspiration.
edit - quote fail
That makes it sound even more useless.
Please elaborate.
Unless I misunderstood c3berUs, it is a quote about inspiration instead of a quote meant to inspire. So a metaphor about the stars in the sky is supposed to describe inspiration in less than 20 words. How is that not useless? I literally cannot think of a single way in which that quote about inspiration, or any one sentence quote describing inspiration (unless it is giving a definition), can be useful.
Of course, if I misunderstood c3berUs and he meant something different, then that doesn't apply.
Just because it has no use to you, does not mean it is useless. Also, if you can not think of a single way in which that quote could be useful, then i suggest you brush up on your critical thinking skills.
On May 01 2011 11:03 FODDER~ wrote: • A feather's length of error can lead one a thousand miles astray. [adversity]
I'm pretty sure taking the wrong exit won't lead me a thousand miles astray. As for how this metaphor relates to life? I don't know, wrong choices don't always result in geographical relocation.
• Do not swat the fly when it rests on the tiger's head. [strategy]
This is very useful. I am constantly swatting flies and not checking whether they have landed on ferocious beasts or not. I will keep this in mind next time.
• True success comes from within. Do not hope to strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. [success]
This is not helpful at all. Although success may come from within, weakening the strong is actually a fairly useful tactic. Has this person never heard of starving your enemy? I am pretty sure that fits the definition of weakening the strong. The entire idea of guerrilla warfare works under this principle.
• Limits only pertain to those who believe in them. [inspiration]
This quote is not just stupid, but insulting. Try telling the 2 billion starving in this world that quote.
The few I did not quote were ok I guess.
I really hate the idea that one or two sentences is supposed to give you some magic wisdom. Life is not simple, and simplifying it unnecessarily often causes problems. Life is often complicated and one word suggestions or mantras rarely if ever manage to encapsulate what you need to know. Even if they do work the majority of the time, sticking to a simple mantra can suck the creativity out of you if the few percent that are different you actually need to do something different.
Plus, the only time that they are useful, they are so vague that they don't even matter anyway. For example "Practice makes perfect." Yeah I get it, more experience with something will lead to a greater skill with that thing. But practicing for a long time will not necessarily make you an Olympic swimmer. If you want to try, thats great, and more power to you if you succeed. Being grounded helps when you fail though, which most people inevitably do. Plus, not all practice is equal. It is entirely possible that you are practicing wrong, and gaining bad experience. "Practice makes perfect" may be kind of true, but it is also effectively useless, just like the majority of these quotes.
unless you are 12 years old you are an idiot - pay attention at school and read something. your post is scary
On May 01 2011 11:03 FODDER~ wrote: • A feather's length of error can lead one a thousand miles astray. [adversity]
I'm pretty sure taking the wrong exit won't lead me a thousand miles astray. As for how this metaphor relates to life? I don't know, wrong choices don't always result in geographical relocation.
• A fish not caught by a hook may be caught by a net. [strategy]
That seems fairly obvious. It can also be caught with your hand.
• Do not swat the fly when it rests on the tiger's head. [strategy]
This is very useful. I am constantly swatting flies and not checking whether they have landed on ferocious beasts or not. I will keep this in mind next time.
• Use every step as your base. [strategy]
I have no idea what this means.
• True success comes from within. Do not hope to strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. [success]
This is not helpful at all. Although success may come from within, weakening the strong is actually a fairly useful tactic. Has this person never heard of starving your enemy? I am pretty sure that fits the definition of weakening the strong. The entire idea of guerrilla warfare works under this principle.
• The darker the night, the brighter the stars. [inspiration]
This quote is frankly just stupid. I don't see how this inspiring, maybe someone can help me out with this.
• Limits only pertain to those who believe in them. [inspiration]
This quote is not just stupid, but insulting. Try telling the 2 billion starving in this world that quote.
The few I did not quote were ok I guess.
I really hate the idea that one or two sentences is supposed to give you some magic wisdom. Life is not simple, and simplifying it unnecessarily often causes problems. Life is often complicated and one word suggestions or mantras rarely if ever manage to encapsulate what you need to know. Even if they do work the majority of the time, sticking to a simple mantra can suck the creativity out of you if the few percent that are different you actually need to do something different.
Plus, the only time that they are useful, they are so vague that they don't even matter anyway. For example "Practice makes perfect." Yeah I get it, more experience with something will lead to a greater skill with that thing. But practicing for a long time will not necessarily make you an Olympic swimmer. If you want to try, thats great, and more power to you if you succeed. Being grounded helps when you fail though, which most people inevitably do. Plus, not all practice is equal. It is entirely possible that you are practicing wrong, and gaining bad experience. "Practice makes perfect" may be kind of true, but it is also effectively useless, just like the majority of these quotes.
unless you are 12 years old you are an idiot - pay attention at school and read something. your post is scary
I must say I agree with thehorsebecomesking. I can't believe that someone would interpret those quotes completely literally. I thought this was just some act of trolling but it doesn't seem to be the case. Jesus Christ.
I'm pretty sure taking the wrong exit won't lead me a thousand miles astray. As for how this metaphor relates to life? I don't know, wrong choices don't always result in geographical relocation.
You seem to not understand that each and every one of these quotes from the book are almost all not literal. By a thousand miles astray it means off course from your goals or intentions. It's an indirect relation to the showball effect of how one miniscule error can lead to exponential adversities.
That seems fairly obvious. It can also be caught with your hand.
Again you are trying to solidify a philosophical standpoint. Something that is intangible and not supposed to be taken literally. What this quote is going for is the idea that a good plan has a fallback and can accomedate for all outcomes (fish movements) whereas the hook in this instance is a single forced and fixated strategy.
This is very useful. I am constantly swatting flies and not checking whether they have landed on ferocious beasts or not. I will keep this in mind next time.
Again you seem to not be able to grasp basic concepts that are not necessarily literal. This quote is warning that a good plan with bad timeings can be self-destructive.
This is not helpful at all. Although success may come from within, weakening the strong is actually a fairly useful tactic. Has this person never heard of starving your enemy? I am pretty sure that fits the definition of weakening the strong. The entire idea of guerrilla warfare works under this principle.
What this quote is advocating is higher success can come from one's own improvement and strength rather than relying on your opposition being incompetent or worse than you. This is assumeing your opposition is better than you.
This quote is frankly just stupid. I don't see how this inspiring, maybe someone can help me out with this.
It is an earlier alternate to the famous, "It's always darkest before the dawn," inspirational/bounce back quote. It's meant to highlight the existence of silver lineings even in your darkest hours.
This quote is not just stupid, but insulting. Try telling the 2 billion starving in this world that quote.
I'll admit the world isn't perfect. But anything rarely is. But having a can do attitude and positive outlook regardless of who you are, where you are from, or what hardships you are faceing at any rage can certaintly help if not eventually overcome the hurdles they are presented with.
Anyways hope I was able to help you understand Chinese philosophy a little bit better. You definately seem to be far too materialistic in your thought process to understand their wisdom (no offense intended at all, we're all different and think differently).
You win the thread, thank you sir for explaining things to people that haven't yet reached a high enough mental plateau to be able to take a positive and mind expanding approach to things. Too often people try to be literal and hold things down, including themselves. It's nice when someone like you can explain things to someone who is almost deliberately trying to be a dick.
I'm a big fan of stuff like this because you can take whatever you want out of it. Great poems and stories can be viewed in a trivial manner, but only if you're a trivial person. Take what you wan't out of it, personally I'd want to take the most I could!
I'm pretty sure taking the wrong exit won't lead me a thousand miles astray. As for how this metaphor relates to life? I don't know, wrong choices don't always result in geographical relocation.
You seem to not understand that each and every one of these quotes from the book are almost all not literal. By a thousand miles astray it means off course from your goals or intentions. It's an indirect relation to the showball effect of how one miniscule error can lead to exponential adversities.
flowSthead:
That seems fairly obvious. It can also be caught with your hand.
Again you are trying to solidify a philosophical standpoint. Something that is intangible and not supposed to be taken literally. What this quote is going for is the idea that a good plan has a fallback and can accomedate for all outcomes (fish movements) whereas the hook in this instance is a single forced and fixated strategy.
flowShead:
This is very useful. I am constantly swatting flies and not checking whether they have landed on ferocious beasts or not. I will keep this in mind next time.
Again you seem to not be able to grasp basic concepts that are not necessarily literal. This quote is warning that a good plan with bad timeings can be self-destructive.
flowSthead:
I have no idea what this means.
It's rather simple. What it advocates is gradual advancements and fortification upon every small victory.
flowSthead:
This is not helpful at all. Although success may come from within, weakening the strong is actually a fairly useful tactic. Has this person never heard of starving your enemy? I am pretty sure that fits the definition of weakening the strong. The entire idea of guerrilla warfare works under this principle.
What this quote is advocating is higher success can come from one's own improvement and strength rather than relying on your opposition being incompetent or worse than you. This is assumeing your opposition is better than you.
flowSthead:
This quote is frankly just stupid. I don't see how this inspiring, maybe someone can help me out with this.
It is an earlier alternate to the famous, "It's always darkest before the dawn," inspirational/bounce back quote. It's meant to highlight the existence of silver lineings even in your darkest hours.
flowSthead:
This quote is not just stupid, but insulting. Try telling the 2 billion starving in this world that quote.
I'll admit the world isn't perfect. But anything rarely is. But having a can do attitude and positive outlook regardless of who you are, where you are from, or what hardships you are faceing at any rage can certaintly help if not eventually overcome the hurdles they are presented with.
Anyways hope I was able to help you understand Chinese philosophy a little bit better. You definately seem to be far too materialistic in your thought process to understand their wisdom (no offense intended at all, we're all different and think differently).
You win the thread, thank you sir for explaining things to people that haven't yet reached a high enough mental plateau to be able to take a positive and mind expanding approach to things. Too often people try to be literal and hold things down, including themselves. It's nice when someone like you can explain things to someone who is almost deliberately trying to be a dick.
I'm a big fan of stuff like this because you can take whatever you want out of it. Great poems and stories can be viewed in a trivial manner, but only if you're a trivial person. Take what you wan't out of it, personally I'd want to take the most I could!
I take offense at your last paragraph. These are not great poems and stories. If we were talking about "War and Peace" or "The Raven", I would not have been so critical. But we are talking about 5 word sentences. These are not great poems and stories, these are fairly trivial quotations.
On May 01 2011 11:03 FODDER~ wrote: • The darker the night, the brighter the stars. [inspiration]
This quote is frankly just stupid. I don't see how this inspiring, maybe someone can help me out with this.
The quote is not what's inspiring, its a quote about inspiration.
edit - quote fail
That makes it sound even more useless.
Please elaborate.
Unless I misunderstood c3berUs, it is a quote about inspiration instead of a quote meant to inspire. So a metaphor about the stars in the sky is supposed to describe inspiration in less than 20 words. How is that not useless? I literally cannot think of a single way in which that quote about inspiration, or any one sentence quote describing inspiration (unless it is giving a definition), can be useful.
Of course, if I misunderstood c3berUs and he meant something different, then that doesn't apply.
Just because it has no use to you, does not mean it is useless. Also, if you can not think of a single way in which that quote could be useful, then i suggest you brush up on your critical thinking skills.
I hate this idea that because I cannot think of something, I am an idiot. Why not help me out by telling me how that quote is useful to you? There is no one way to view of the word, so I would say you have a lack of empathy AND a lack of critical thinking skills since you could not even come up with a single example.
Oh did I just make a hasty generalization from one example? Yes, I did, employing your tactic.
You seem to not understand that each and every one of these quotes from the book are almost all not literal. By a thousand miles astray it means off course from your goals or intentions. It's an indirect relation to the showball effect of how one miniscule error can lead to exponential adversities.
I did understand that they are not literal, I was making fun of them because it was easier than addressing them in a serious way. But fine. Yes, one error can lead to larger problems (drugs would be the biggest example of this). My problem with it is that "one error" is an entirely vague sentiment, and means entirely different things for different people. And sometimes there are also things such as fortuitous errors. Otherwise, the idea that an error can lead to bigger problems seems fairly obvious.
Again you are trying to solidify a philosophical standpoint. Something that is intangible and not supposed to be taken literally. What this quote is going for is the idea that a good plan has a fallback and can accomedate for all outcomes (fish movements) whereas the hook in this instance is a single forced and fixated strategy.
First of all, that is not what that quote means. What that quote means is that there is no one way to catch a fish, and thus no one way to solve a problem. No fisherman throws a line and a net at the same time, which would involve it being a fallback. I was again making fun of it because this should be common sense again, that there are multiple solutions to problems. If it was the other one, then it would be wrong because you cannot always accommodate for every outcome. The notion is impossible,
Again you seem to not be able to grasp basic concepts that are not necessarily literal. This quote is warning that a good plan with bad timeings can be self-destructive.
Again, you seem not to understand what a joke is. I understand the quote just fine, it's just a little silly.
It's rather simple. What it advocates is gradual advancements and fortification upon every small victory.
This one I was guessing at, but reading what you wrote makes it a bit clearer. I don't really care much about this one. I sort of like the idea, but I don't find it universally applicable. Still, it is better than most of the other quotes.
What this quote is advocating is higher success can come from one's own improvement and strength rather than relying on your opposition being incompetent or worse than you. This is assumeing your opposition is better than you.
Yes, again I understand what the quote is advocating. And if you remember my last paragraphs, I explained that life is complicated and I find the idea of this quote to lead to a stagnation of the mind. Sometimes, it is very difficult to make yourself stronger. Instead, it is possible to make your enemy weaker. It entirely depends on the situation you are in. This is why I dislike the quote, because it is situationally based, and thus useless some large part of the time.
It is an earlier alternate to the famous, "It's always darkest before the dawn," inspirational/bounce back quote. It's meant to highlight the existence of silver lineings even in your darkest hours..
Yeah, I don't find anything inspirational in that. I much rather prefer the strength from within quote to this one. Frankly, there are often times when there is no silver lining, and I really hate people telling me platitudes when something bad has happened to me. But whatever. I guess I can let this quote go as well, if you find something inspirational in it. I at least appreciate a serious answer.
This quote is not just stupid, but insulting. Try telling the 2 billion starving in this world that quote.
I'll admit the world isn't perfect. But anything rarely is. But having a can do attitude and positive outlook regardless of who you are, where you are from, or what hardships you are faceing at any rage can certaintly help if not eventually overcome the hurdles they are presented with.
Anyways hope I was able to help you understand Chinese philosophy a little bit better. You definately seem to be far too materialistic in your thought process to understand their wisdom (no offense intended at all, we're all different and think differently).
Thank you very much Fodder. I appreciate your serious response rather than calling me a stupid 12 year old, or that I have a lack of critical thinking skills, or that I "have not reached a high enough mental plateau". I will admit that I am not too familiar with Chinese Philosophy, although I have read some of Sun Tzu, but not enough to even claim that.
Reading back on what I wrote, I was probably too aggressive. I apologize for that. You are right in saying that I do have a fairly materialistic mindset. I like to think of it as practical, rather than materialistic, but I don't mind the word. My general philosophy is pragmatic existentialist you could say, and I generally just have a problem with vague things. Having you explain your perspective is better for me. If you had included your perspective on each quote at the beginning of your post, I would have less of an issue with the quotes. The reason being, they are so vague, that in my mind only the personal response to the quotes is significant.
*Sigh* I really have not learned that whole "if you can't say anything nice" adage. I am glad at least you responded nicely to me, even if I did not to you. Sorry again.
What I'm more interested in is why flowSthread has invested so much effort into pointing out obvious holes. I'd point out the holes in his over-thought logic... but unlike him (or her), it's not in my best interest. I appreciate your posts in this thread, Fodder. The adages are worth whatever you get out of them.
*Sigh* I really have not learned that whole "if you can't say anything nice" adage. I am glad at least you responded nicely to me, even if I did not to you. Sorry again.
I think this quote shows that you have learnt a great deal in your life Most people would not say something like this.
EPT
