Quote of the Day: Ancient Fake Confucius Quote Edition

I've been reading from Zhuangzi (translation by Ziporyn) and I came across an ancient fake Confucius quote (I guess everyone's been doing it for centuries). Zhuangzi used Confucius as a character in his writings, so while this quote is almost certainly not Confucian, it is attributed to him all the same: 

"People cannot see their reflections in running water, but only in still water" (Ziporyn 33)

For this coming new year, I hope I can slow down more often and reflect more clearly on who I am and who others are. 

Also, exercise more, eat better, yada yada yada, etc., etc., etc.  

I can't promise I will blog more this coming year (hate to disappoint ya, stranger but it's true). That said I hope whoever you are and whenever you are reading this you are happy, warm and have hope and dreams to hold onto, just in case you are neither happy nor warm.  

Quote of the Day: Peace

"A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, or the return of your absent friend, or some other favorable event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Quote of the Day

"Likewise, if all experiences are indifferent, that of duty is as legitimate as any other." - Albert Camus

I was thinking of this one the other day. Even if there is no objective ethical standard or morals...it's good to know that you might as well be good. 

Quote of the Day

It's been a while since I've posted a "quote of the day" but I was reading some Confucius (surprise) and came across this little truth nugget. It's from 17:26 in the Analects.

  “One who has reached the age of forty and is disliked, will be disliked to the end.” - Confucius

Quote of the Day

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” - Kurt Vonnegut

Quote of the Day

"I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." 

 

- Stephen Grellet

Quote of the Day

I am a glutton for punishment. I decided to revamp our selection from the Analects and just finished reading through all 20 chapters.  No, I wasn't asked, it was just something I felt the urge to do it. Also, I find ancient Chinese philosophies fascinating. 

I think I just earned an extra dork patch for my vest. 

Here's a pretty sweet one from the Analects: 

[11:12] Chi Lu asked about serving the spirits. Confucius said, “If you can't yet serve men, how can you serve the spirits?” Lu said, “May I ask about death?” Confucius said, “If you don't understand what life is, how will you understand death?”

Quote of the Day

 "The way of truth is like a great road. It is not difficult to know it. The evil is only that men will not seek it." - Mencius 

Quote of the Day (X3)

Triple the amount of quotes, for the same great price.

Last week, we were on our way somewhere and we started to smell some BBQ smoke wafting into our car. Our girls thought it smelled bad for some reason, and my oldest C asked, "Did any one toot?" After everyone denied it, our 2 and a half year old, H, proclaimed, "It was my poop everyone!" Of course, he hadn't pooped, he was just being a silly boy.

Some time after that, we were once again in the car together when my oldest, C,  spotted a man picking his nose in the car next to us, "Eww...look he's picking his nose!" E, our lovely middle child replies proudly, "He's on my team."  When I turned around she had a deviously beautiful smile on her face.

Today, C forgot to bring home her spelling words for the night to study. She ran over to the couch and as she threw herself down onto it, she said, "I'm doomed!".

I'm thinking getting her into comic books has paid off.

Quote of the Day

First "Quote of the Day" post from my family that I didn't hear with my own ears, but too good not to share and remember.

Grandma baked a lamb cake today and Grandpa was pushing H (who just turned two) on the swing in the backyard. Grandpa was telling H that he could eat the lamb tail. However, H must have misheard him and said, "Don't have lamb tail, I have penis."

That's my boy!

Quote of the Day: A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapor, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him, the universe knows nothing of this.
All our dignity then, consists in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endavour then, to think well; this is the principle of morality."

--Pascal Pensees 347

Quote of the Day: Coates on Human Complication

"If you begin from the premise that all humans are complicated then there really is no dissonance to be had. Dissonance is what we are."

-  Ta-Nehisi Coates (one of my favorite columnists)

(in his own comment section, no less)

Quote of the Day

I called my wife on the way out the door at work to let her know I was leaving. The brief phone call ended abruptly with this closer:

"I have poop on my hands I have to go."

Quote of the Day: Duchamp on Tools

This week was my annual book shelf cleaning week. I dust the shelf, dust off each book, re-organize as needed and decide whether to keep or sell any books. While I was thumbing through an old book, I found an old note in my handwriting on a folded, beat-up Post-It note:  

"Tools that are no good require more skill" - Duchamp

Quote of the Day: Tolstoy on Intelligence

"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt what is laid before him" - Leo Tolstoy from The Kingdom of God Is Within You