Stoyan Velikov > Stoyan's Quotes

“Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped.

Above, it isn't bright.
Below, it isn't dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.

Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.”
― Lao Tzu

“The flexible are preserved unbroken. The bent become straight. The empty are filled. The exhausted become renewed. The poor are enriched. The rich are confounded. Therefore the sage embraces the one. Because he doesn't display himself, people can see his light. Because he has nothing to prove, people can trust his words. Because he doesn't know who he is, people recognize themselves in him. Because he has no goal in mind, everything he does succeeds. The old saying that the flexible are preserved unbroken is surely right! If you have truely attained wholeness, everything will flock to you.”
― Lao-Tzu

“Those who understand others are intelligent
Those who understand themselves are enlightened

Those who overcome others have strength
Those who overcome themselves are powerful

Those who know contentment are wealthy
Those who proceed vigorously have willpower

Those who do not lose their base endure
Those who die but do not perish have longevity”
― Lao Tzu

“If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“True perfection seems imperfect,
yet it is perfectly itself.
True fullness seems empty,
yet it is fully present.

True straightness seems crooked.
True wisdom seems foolish.
True art seems artless.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching: A Literal Translation With an Introduction, Notes, and Commentary

“If lightning is the anger of the gods, then the gods are concerned mostly about trees.”
― Lao Tzu

“Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.”
― Lao Tzu

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
― Mark Twain

“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.”
― Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”
― Mark Twain

“Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.”
― Mark Twain

“Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.”
― Mark Twain

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”
― Mark Twain

“When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”
― Mark Twain

“I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can't find anybody who can tell me what they want.”
― Mark Twain

“A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.”
― Mark Twain

“He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.”
― Mark Twain

“The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little.”
― Mark Twain

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
― Mark Twain

“The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.”
― Mark Twain, What is Man?

“There is nothing so annoying as having two people talking when you're busy interrupting.”
― Mark Twain

“Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.”
― Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger and Other Curious Tales

“When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.”
― Mark Twain

“I do not like work even when someone else is doing it.”
― Mark Twain

“Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination.”
― Mark Twain

“The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.”
― mark twain

“Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul.”
― Mark Twain

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.”
― Mark Twain

“Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself.”
― Mark Twain