Taoism itself is primarily a philosophy of living naturally within the world, neither contending with nor altering nature. Taoist thought is permeated with the notion that humanity and heaven are a unified whole, that the entire universe is contained within humanity. This whole is known as the tao.
-Stuart Alve Olson, The Jade Emperor’s Mind Seal Classic: The Taoist Guide to Health, Longevity, and Immortality
The Taoist tradition always had an anti-social, anti-conventional bent. The blind acceptance of conventional duties and commitment to conventional conformity for its own sake would distract us from Taoist goals.
-Brandon Toropov and Chad Hansen, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Taoism
For the Taoist, the idea of God as some supreme attendant, as in the Christian sense, would be rather amusing if not totally erroneous. In Taoism supreme beings were more useful as symbols or mythic images, representing one or another spiritual aspect within oneself.
-Stuart Alve Olson, The Jade Emperor’s Mind Seal Classic: The Taoist Guide to Health, Longevity, and Immortality
The Tao is not a religion, as it requires no initiations or ceremonies, steers away from dogma and strict rules of conduct, and focuses on what truly empowers the individual to find freedom.
-Mantak Chia and Lee Holden, Simple Chi Kung: Exercises for Awakening the Life-Force Energy
…as Americans, our downfall is twofold: our propensity to be too analytical and our rationalism. Too many years of psychoanalysis and Freudian thought has caused us to categorize everything in terms of fact and myth, not realizing, as the Chinese did, that they are one and the same. If we are to understand and practice the teachings of Tao, these two failings must be remedied.
-Stuart Alve Olson, The Jade Emperor’s Mind Seal Classic: The Taoist Guide to Health, Longevity, and Immortality
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War (Lionel Giles Translation)
Wisdom from the East 