The value comes from what is there, but the use comes from what is not there.
Interpretation
Value derives from existence, while utility arises from the absence of certain elements.
This quote by Laozi highlights the dual nature of value and use in our understanding of the world. It suggests that things possess intrinsic worth due to their existence, but the true potential and application of those things are often defined by what is lacking or absent, leading us to appreciate the balance between presence and absence in our lives and decisions.
In practice
During a discussion on minimalism, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of appreciating what is not needed.
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.
Mankind is at its best when it is most free. This will be clear if we grasp the principle of liberty. We must recall that the basic principle is freedom of choice, which saying many have on their lips but few in their minds.
We may not live in the past, but the past lives in us.
To embarrass justice by multiplicity of laws, or to hazard it by confidence in judges, seem to be the opposite rocks on which all civil institutions have been wrecked, and between which legislative wisdom has never yet found an open passage.
A human being becomes human not through the casual convergence of certain biological conditions, but through an act of will and love on the part of other people.
...while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty.
Thief!- how did you crawl into, crawl down alone into the death I wanted so badly and for so long.
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