Explore timeless wisdom, reflections, and philosophical insights on leadership & sovereignty, curated from history's most profound thinkers.
Curated reflections and timeless quotes exploring leadership & sovereignty.
Explore timeless wisdom, reflections, and philosophical insights on leadership & sovereignty, curated from history's most profound thinkers.
The superior man blames himself. The inferior man blames others.
What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star.
If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.
If you lead people with laws and unify them with punishments, they will try to avoid penalties and have no sense of shame.
Guide people with virtue and align them with ritual propriety, and they will cultivate a sense of shame and become truly good.
The superior man is easy to serve and difficult to please.
A gentleman seeks harmony, not uniformity; the petty man seeks uniformity, not harmony.
Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.
To govern is to correct. If you lead with correctness, who will dare not to be correct?
From the Emperor down to the common people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of all virtue.
He who rides the natural order of Heaven and Earth and pilots the six elements can roam the infinite without dependency.
Is there anything upon which the truly free man depends? He relies solely on the boundless Dao.
To treat things as things, and not to be treated as a thing by things—this is the true master.
The great bell does not chime for itself; it sounds only when struck. The sage acts only when circumstance calls.
Do not seek to be praised by the multitude; the hawk does not ask permission from the sparrows to soar.
My friends, you have your freedom, and I have my freedom. I have no quarrel with you; only do not look at me with pity.
The small man builds cages for everyone he knows. While the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low, keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful rowdy prisoners.
The true dervish owns nothing, yet reigns over the treasures of the cosmos.
Do not envy the king on his golden throne; the lover asleep in the dust of the Beloved's lane is wealthier by far.
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
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