The highest excellence is like water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving, the low place which all men dislike.

  • -- Lao Tzu 老子

上善若水,水善利万物而不争。处眾人之所恶,故几於道。

相关名言

However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

不论你的生活如何卑贱,你要面对它生活,不要躲避它,更别用恶言咒骂它。视贫穷如园中之花而像圣人一样耕植它吧。不要麻烦自己去找新的东西,无论是衣服还是朋友。万物不变,是我们在变。卖掉你的衣服,保留你的思想。

Grandeur and beauty are so very opposite, that you often diminish the one as you increase the other. Variety is most akin to the latter, simplicity to the former.

宏伟与美丽是如此的对立,以至于你常常在增加美与减少美的同时,也在减少美。多样性与后者最为相似,简单性与前者最为相似。