Quotes – Page 3

The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

This sentence, the first in the Dao De Jing, is just so…I just like it so much. Lol. So here are five different translations of that one sentence:

The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

The Dao that can be understood cannot be the primal, or cosmic, Dao, just as an idea that can be expressed in words cannot be the infinite idea.

There are ways but the Way is uncharted. There are names but not nature in words.

The way that becomes a way is not the Immortal Way; the name that becomes a name is not the Immortal Name

The divine law may be spoken of, but it is not the common law. Things may be named, but names are not the things.

Five different translations, five different flavors.

And here’s the original Mandarin:

道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。

“It is the ultimate goal of almost all human effort”

The power and omnipresence of the sexual drive: Next to the love of life it shows itself here as the strongest and most active of all motives, and incessantly lays claim to half the powers and thoughts of the younger portion of mankind. It is the ultimate goal of almost all human effort. It has an unfavourable influence on the most important affairs, interrupts every hour the most serious occupations, and sometimes perplexes for a while the greatest human minds…Sex is really the invisible point of all action and conduct, and peeps up everywhere in spite of all the veils thrown over it. It is the cause of war and the aim and object of peace,…the inexhaustible source of wit, the key to all allusions, and the meaning of all mysterious hints, of all unspoken offers and all stolen glances; it is the meditation of the young and often the old as well, the hourly thought of the unchaste and, even against their will, the constantly recurring imagination of the chaste.

From Irvin D. Yalom’s book The Schopenhauer Cure.

Confucius says, in Chinese and Korean

I recently stumbled on this blog post and was stunned to see one of my favorite Confucius quotes, not only translated into Korean, but adapted and localized too! So below is a comparison of the Chinese version as I understand it, alongside the Korean version as the author conveys it.

The Korean version (along with its translated English and commentary) is copied verbatim from the above blog.

It’s interesting to see the differences. Korean seems to have more names for the older decades (eg, 80, 90) and also a name for when you reach 20 and “become a man.” Also interesting to see the different interpretations for each decade, in particular for reaching the age of 60.

Confucius says…

Korean: 15 Age where one recognizes the value of education | Ge Hak 지학
Chinese: At 15 my heart was set on learning | 吾十有五而志于学

Korean: 20 Age when a boy becomes a man (Sorry. No equivalent for women) | Yak Kwan 약 관
Chinese: None

Korean: 30 Age to begin your life’s planning | I Lib 이 립
Chinese: At 30 I stood firm | 三十而立

Korean: 40 Age when you have enough experience not to be fooled by others | Pul Hok 불혹
Chinese: At 40 I had no more doubts | 四十而不惑

Korean: 50 Age when you begin to understand the Gods’ thinking (Note: Not religious Gods but forces of nature.) | Ji Yung 지영
Chinese: At 50 I knew the Mandate of Heaven | 五十而知天命

Korean: 60 Age where you have the experience to take in the thoughts of others and determine the best and worst | I Soon 이 순
Chinese: At 60 my ear was obedient | 六十而耳顺

Korean: 61 Notable age as you have now lived through one full cycle of the 12 annual symbols (i.e. Year of the Dragon ) | Hwan Gap 환 갑
Chinese: None

Korean: 70 Age where you are filled with happiness (Because you are not dead, I guess.) | Ko He 고희
Chinese: At 70 I could follow my heart’s desire without transgressing the norm | 其实而从心所欲，不逾矩

Korean: 80 Meaning for this age and age 90 and 100 is as a title only to signify you have reached this age. | San Su 신수
Chinese: None

Korean: 90 See 80. | Chol Su 졸수
Chinese: None

Korean: 100 See 80, and with additional meaning of exceptionally long life. | Sang Su 상 수
Chinese: None

Recent good quotes: “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less” – General Eric Shinseki

So the only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it. – Dale Carnegie

Fortune is not only blind herself, but blinds the people she has embraced. – Cicero

If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less – General Eric Shinseki

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. – Carl Jung

When we see our uniqueness as a virtue, only then do we find peace – Ghost in the Shell

Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. – Bruce Lee

You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more. – Morpheus in The Matrix

A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have – Tim Ferriss

Question to Bill Belichick: “With all you have accomplished in your coaching career, what is left that you still want to accomplish?” Belichick’s answer: “I’d like to go out and have a good practice today. That would be at the top of the list right now.” [source]

Marcus Aurelius on how to wake up in the morning

Found this gem from Marcus Aurelius as I was reviewing random notes I’d taken. Just so happened to read it around 9:30am, while still groggy from a night of poor sleep.

Courtesy of Business Insider.

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?’
— But it’s nicer in here …
So you were born to feel ‘nice’? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?
— But we have to sleep sometime …
Agreed. But nature set a limit on that — as it did on eating and drinking. And you’re over the limit. You’ve had more than enough of that. But not of working. There you’re still below your quota.
You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving, the dancer for the dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.
Is helping others less valuable to you? Not worth your effort?