First and last follow each other.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that beginnings and endings are intrinsically linked, highlighting the cyclical nature of life.
Laozi's quote, 'First and last follow each other,' emphasizes the interconnectedness of beginnings and endings in life's journey. It reflects the idea that every beginning has an inevitable ending, and every ending paves the way for new beginnings. This cyclical perspective encourages us to embrace change and continuity, reminding us that life is a series of transitions where one phase seamlessly leads into another.
In practice
In a motivational speech about embracing change, one might say this quote to illustrate the importance of viewing life transitions positively.
If you understand others you are smart._x000D_ If you understand yourself you are illuminated._x000D_ If you overcome others you are powerful._x000D_ If you overcome yourself you have strength._x000D_ If you know how to be satisfied you are rich._x000D_ If you can act with vigor, you have a will._x000D_ If you don't lose your objectives you can be long-lasting._x000D_ If you die without loss, you are eternal.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.
In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.
Rule your mind with serenity rather than with force and manipulation.
There are no prescriptive solutions, no grand designs for grand problems. Life's solutions lie in the minute particulars involving more and more individual people daring to create their own life and art, daring to listen to the voice within their deepest, original nature, and deeper still, the voice within the earth.
One must care about a world one will not see.
Every one knows that the exercise of military power is forever dangerous to civil rights; and we have had recent instances of violences that have been offer'd to private subjects.
Fear is a relative thing; its effects are relative to power.
Physically, man is but an atom in space, and a pulsation in time. Spiritually, the entire outward universe receives significance from him, and the scope of his existence stretches beyond the stars.
We look for the Secret - the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of the Wise, Supreme Enlightenment, 'God' or whatever...and all the time it is carrying us about...It is the human nervous system itself.
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