Philosophy on wholeness

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

“Even if the whole world were to fall to pieces, the unity of the psyche would never be shattered. And the wider and more numerous the fissures on the surface, the more the unity is strengthened in the depths.”

“I am a parcel of vain strivings tied / By a chance bond together, / Dangling this way and that, their links / Were made so loose and wide, / Methinks, / For milder weather.”

“The life that I aspire to live / No man proposeth me—No trade upon the street / Wears its emblazonry.”

“When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?”

“The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.”

“A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be Uranus, or it may be in the shutter.”

“The bluebird carries the sky on his back.”

“The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.”

“Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.”

“That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”

“It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves.”

“The savage in man is never quite eradicated.”

“I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.”

“Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.”

“I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject.”

“The rich man... is always sold to the institution which makes him rich.”

“As the analysis of a substantial composite terminates only in a part which is not a whole, that is, in a simple part, so synthesis terminates only in a whole which is not a part, that is, the world.”

“All natural capacities of a creature are destined to evolve completely to their natural end.”

“What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?”

“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.”

“The Tao is like a bellows: it is empty yet infinitely capable. The more you use it, the more it produces; the more you talk of it, the less you understand.”

“The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds.”

“Governing a large country is like frying a small fish.”

“A journey of a thousand miles started with a first step.”

“People are difficult to be ruled, Because the ruler governs with personal desire and establishes too many laws to confuse the people.”

“Nothing that can be said in words is worth saying.”

“Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.”

“When I am anxious it is because I am living in the future. When I am depressed it is because I am living in the past.”

“Lao-tse may be regarded as the deepest thinker of Chinese antiquity.”

“Political leaders are never leaders. For leaders we have to look to the Awakeners! Lao Tse, Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Milarepa, Gurdjiev, Krishnamurti.”

“We must plow through the whole of language.”

“It would be better for me … that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.”

“It would be better for me... that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.”