Alexia Dominique Reyes

Thomas More basically described what he thought was the ideal society in a more interesting way than the others who did the same in his time. But the particulars that stuck in my mind were kind of related to gender roles: In Utopia, the husband was the stable entity in the household, and his wife and his children were considered his dependents. Women could get married at 18, but men at 22. Sex was prohibited outside of marriage to increase the number of people who would marry, because they needed it to have access to sex.

How did people know about sex, though? I just thought of that question while reading. How can science explain how human beings function? Okay, there are chemicals and hormones in the body that make humans think or behave a certain way, but why do they have certain functions, and who created them in the first place? I think St. Thomas Aquinas makes more sense than scientists in terms of the origin of humans. And that is irrelevant to Utopia, but Utopia made me think about that.

Like, how did the first humans know about sex? By doing it, of course. But then, why did they even think of doing that? What made the first man think of putting it inside a woman? Because that's the only way to discover that sex leads to pleasure and pregnancy, right? Even if we say that humans evolved from apes, how did apes know about sex? And who created apes? In science, the universe is the origin of the world. Who created the universe?

• "Just how absurd it is to punish theft and murder in the same way. Once the thief realizes that theft carries no less a penalty than if he were convicted of murder, then that thought alone will drive him to kill the victim, whom otherwise he might just have robbed. Quite apart from the fact that he stands in no greater jeopardy if caught, there's greater safety in murder and a better hope of concealment if he gets rid of the witness."
• "When people have been reluctant to match their morals to the standard of Christ, canny preachers have accommodated his precepts to fit their morals, just like some leaden yardstick, so that at least there might be some connection between the two. I can't see what this achieves except that people may be bad with a lighter conscience."
• "The wisest of men clearly saw that the one and only way to social well-being is equality of possessions; and I doubt whether this can ever be practiced where each individual has his own property. For when everyone is entitled to claw together as much as he can get for himself, then, no matter how great the resources available, a small number end up dividing the whole lot among themselves, and the remainder are stuck in poverty."
• "For it is certain that among all living creatures, greed and aggression are driven by the fear of want; only among mankind are they stirred by pride, which considers it glorious to outshine others by flaunting one's possessions."
• "For the Utopians are amazed that anyone can take delight in the transitory glitter of a tiny jewel or precious stone when he is free to gaze at a star, or even at the sun itself. Equally, they are amazed that anyone can be so mad as to think himself of nobler stock just because he is clothed in finer wool. However finely spun the wool, a sheep wore it first, and remained just a sheep."
• "They anticipate that unless people are strictly restrained from casual sex, few would undertake marriage, with its lifelong commitment to a single partner and all the other irksome demands which that entails."
• "When I survey and assess all the different political systems flourishing today, nothing else presents itself but a conspiracy of the rich, who look after their own interests under the name and title of the commonwealth."
• "Pride measures prosperity not by her own good fortune but rather by the ill-fortune of others. She wouldn't even want to be a goddess unless some wretches remained whom she could taunt and push around, by whose misfortunes her own happiness would shine more brightly and whose poverty she might vex and provoke by flaunting her wealth."

I wish he included pictures of the Utopia, or did he in other editions? It is available online, but I'm not sure if that was how Thomas More envisioned it.

This is about huge start-ups that need investors, so not applicable to me. I was able to finish this quickly because I skipped many parts, specifically those about venture capitalists, employee management, and also technology. I bootstrapped Sociopoliticool and don't have any plan to seek investors or have a co-founder. I'm giving this 3 stars because it's not the author's fault that I didn't enjoy this. Maybe owners of huge start-ups can learn a lot from this.

For a brief moment, I forgot I was reading a book about history, so when empires and sociopolitical stuff showed up as examples, I was confused (I even asked myself if I was reading Machiavelli's The Prince). There were many, many detailed examples, and none stuck on my mind. I only remember the points raised. The author's intelligence is beyond mine, so there were moments that my brain became foggy and couldn't understand a thing. So, it took me many weeks to finish this.

The first part was easy to understand, though. But it became all scientific on the latter part, and science (natural, not social) has always been my least-favorite subject. I also want to mention that this is "a brief history of humankind," but it is too long for me. Here are some highlights:

• "The Agricultural Revolution certainly enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind, but the extra food did not translate into a better diet or more leisure. Rather, it translated into population explosions and pampered elites. The average farmer worked harder than the average forager, and got a worse diet in return. The Agricultural Revolution was history's biggest fraud."
• "The new agricultural tasks demanded so much time that people were forced to settle permanently next to their wheat fields. This completely changed their way of life. We did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us."
• Cultivating wheat provided much more food per unit of territory, and thereby enabled Homo sapiens to multiply exponentially."
• "Even if by some superhuman effort I succeed in freeing my personal desires from the grip of the imagined order, I am just one person. In order to change the imagined order, I must convince millions of strangers to cooperate with me. For the imagined order is not a subjective order existing in my own imagination; it is rather an inter-subjective order, existing in the shared imagination of thousands and millions of people."
• "There is no way out of the imagined order. When we break down and run towards freedom, we are in fact running into the more spacious exercise yard of a bigger prison."
• "Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behavior, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition. No culture has ever bothered to forbid men to photosynthesize, women to run faster than the speed of light, or negatively charged electrons to be attracted to each other."
• "There simply is no direct correlation between physical strength and social power among humans. People in their sixties usually exercise power over people in their twenties, even though twentysomethings are much stronger than their elders."
• "Since females need external help, they are obliged to develop their social skills and learn how to cooperate and appease. They construct all-female social networks that help each member raise her children. Males, meanwhile, spend their time fighting and competing. Their social skills and social bonds remain underdeveloped."
• "Myths and fictions accustomed people, nearly from the moment of birth, to think in certain ways, to behave in accordance with certain standards, to want certain things, and to observe certain rules. They thereby created artificial instincts that enabled millions of strangers to cooperate effectively. This network of artificial instincts is called 'culture.' "
• "Money isn't a material reality; it is a psychological construct. It works by converting matter into mind."
• "Gautama's insight was that no matter what the mind experiences, it usually reacts with craving, and craving always involves dissatisfaction. When the mind experiences something distasteful, it craves to be rid of the irritation. When the mind experiences something pleasant, it craves that the pleasure will remain and will intensify. Therefore, the mind is always dissatisfied and restless."
• "If the mind of a person is free of all craving, no god can make him miserable. Conversely, once craving arises in a person's mind, all the gods in the universe cannot save him from suffering."
• "The single most remarkable and defining moment of the past 500 years came at 05:29:45 on 16 July 1945. At that precise second, American scientists detonated the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico. From that point onward, humankind had the capability not only to change the course of history, but to end it."
• "The figures for 2002 are even more surprising. Out of 57 million dead, only 172,000 people died in war and 569,000 died of violent crime (a total of 741,000 victims of human violence). In contrast, 873,000 people committed suicide. It turns out that in the year following the 9/11 attacks, despite all the talk of terrorism and war, the average person was more likely to kill himself than to be killed by a terrorist, a soldier, or a drug dealer."
• "Most people don't appreciate just how peaceful an era we live in. None of us was alive a thousand years ago, so we easily forget how much more violent the world used to be."
• "Happiness does not really depend on objective conditions of either wealth, health, or even community. Rather, it depends on the correlation between objective conditions and subjective expectations. If you want a bullock-cart and get a bullock-cart, you are content. If you want a brand-new Ferrari and get only a second-hand Fiat, you feel deprived."

I have more highlights, but this review is now long!

This was published by a well-known publisher with in-house editors and more, but I saw a typo: "She didn't used to think that was possible." I checked whether it was really a typo because English is my second language, and I might be wrong. But "didn't used to" was really wrong. I am not a grammar Nazi or whatever, but this underwent several stages before it got published, so my expectation was quite higher than usual.

Anyway, I think the poems were straightforward, so they didn't leave any room for decoding. Poetry should be metaphorical and symbolic, but her popularity might have caused her to write just for the sake of having another book published, because that's what her fans wanted. I didn't feel her heart here.

Or maybe it's my own heart I'm not feeling.

I saw a contradiction here. She said (and allow me to write this in sentence form), "I think I finally understand why men love dogs so much. They're unquestionably loyal. They're easy to command. They hate me because I refuse to be either of those things." And then the poem after that, literally after that, was, "Tell me who your dream girl is. Give me a list a forest long. I'll be her. I'll be anyone you want me to be." But isn't that being commanded to do something? And she just said she refuses to be commanded? Huh?

I think she reached a point where she writes just to have a new book published. Not from the heart anymore. Or maybe the case is that she gets inspiration from the same life stories she's had, so her poems and prose have become repetitive but written in different ways.

Okay, well. Knowing that I finished this in less than 30 minutes was more impactful than any of the poems and prose in this book, but I noticed that the style was less creative then her older works. I tried to look for any piece worth highlighting, but I couldn't find any. I've outgrown fairy tales and read a lot of self-love stories, so I struggled to relate and saw nothing new. But this was published in 2020. If my 2020 self read this, she might feel something.

Niccolò Machiavelli included many examples of empires that succeeded and failed, and I struggled to understand those because I don't know empire language. Lots of what, and lots of who: What are skirmishes? Mercenary and auxiliary soldiers, what's the difference? And who was Pope Julius? Scipio? Philopoemen? And oh, there was a sultan in Turkey?

But I enjoyed the second half because the ultra-famous "is it better to be feared than to be loved" was discussed there.

Is it better to be feared than to be loved? Actually, Machiavelli was the most interesting political thinker to me in college because "to be feared vs. to be loved" was an interesting topic to debate on. I think I sided with "to be loved," being a people pleaser at the time lol. But I really can't remember. I might have agreed with him, that it was better to be feared, because of my frequent eye-rolling. I might have wanted to be feared that's why I was unapproachable.

I'll list down only the short highlights and those with only a few empire words in case you also don't understand empire language:

• "In general, you must either pamper people or destroy them; harm them just a little and they'll hit back; harm them seriously and they won't be able to. So if you're going to do people harm, make sure you needn't worry about their reaction."
• "To help another ruler to grow powerful is to prepare your own ruin; because it takes flair or military strength to build up a new power, and both will seem threatening to the person who has benefited from them."
• "If you haven't laid the foundations before becoming king, it takes very special qualities to do it afterwards, and even then, it'll be tough for the architect and risky for the building."
• "A ruler's power must be based on solid foundations; otherwise, he's bound to fall. And the main foundations of any state, whether it be new, or old, or a new territory acquired by an old regime, are good laws and good armed forces."
• "Sensible rulers have always avoided using auxiliaries and mercenaries, relying instead on their own men and even preferring to lose with their own troops than to win with others, on the principle that a victory won with foreign forces is not a real victory at all."
• "A ruler in power and a man seeking power are two different things. For the ruler already in power, generosity is dangerous; for the man seeking power, it is essential."
• "Is it better to be loved rather than feared, or vice versa? The answer is that one would prefer to be both but, since they don't go together easily, if you have to choose, it's much safer to be feared than loved."
• "While a ruler can't expect to inspire love when making himself feared, he must avoid arousing hatred. Actually, being feared is perfectly compatible with not being hated. And a ruler won't be hated if he keeps his hands off his subjects' property and their women. If he really has to have someone executed, he should only do it when he has proper justification and manifest cause."
• "There are two ways of doing battle: using the law and using force. Typically, humans use laws and animal force. But since playing by the law often proves inadequate, it makes sense to resort to force as well. Hence, a ruler must be able to exploit both the man and the beast in himself to the full."
• "A ruler must take advice, but only when he wants it, not when others want to give it to him. In fact, he should discourage people from giving him advice unasked."
• "Fortune varies but men go on regardless. When their approach suits the times, they're successful, and when it doesn't, they're not."

It is almost 2 AM and I'm going to sleep now zzzzzzzzzz. Or I might read another book until I fall asleep.

I am not a secret drug addict, so some parts were boring to me. But I'm giving this book 4 stars because it gave me insights into the life of a secret drug addict (or at least one of the drug addicts).

It was mentioned that dysfunction begins not from a person's childhood but maybe in the childhood of that person's great-great-great-great-grandparent. An "inherited tragedy." For a long time, I've been thinking about whether it is possible to be with someone who is your equal psychologically and emotionally, because many people are very particular about meeting an equal. And for a long time, too, my answer has been "no," so I don't emphasize that in my life.

I know that I have a better support system than others. If I meet someone, or fall in love with someone, who grew up in a dysfunctional environment or have lived a difficult life growing up, will it be good if I stay away? Can I just say, "Gosh, I am not their therapist! I don't want a man who needs help!"? I don't think so. Because looking back, as much as I want to say that I have overcome my own demons by myself, my friends weren't there, but my mom and my siblings were there. They didn't know what I was dealing with, but their presence gave me hope.

And some people don't have parents and siblings. And some do have them, but they are unreliable, too, given their own issues they haven't overcome. The guy who wrote the book, who wanted to be anonymous, had that problem and started to appreciate life only when he met his wife (who also was a drug addict, now sober) and had a daughter.

Drug addicts are lonely, so those who sell and manufacture drugs make many people lonelier. They are getting rich from other people's loneliness, but they may not be seeing the problem with that because they are consumed by their own loneliness, too, as drug pushers are also drug users. Or they may not be seeing their own loneliness because they aren't in their right mind to begin with, according to the author of the book, not me.

I'll just share one highlight here because I said a lot of things: "Addicts die alone. They die young. They run out of friends. It's an incredibly sad existence. Their funerals are sparsely attended, and they cease to exist. No one talking about them, no one talking about what an amazing impact they had on their lives and what a great loss it is."

Do you want to die alone?

I reread the Art of War because I'm rereading the books I need to review for Sociopoliticool. The only thing I want to say is that, earlier, I was looking at the sky and realized how peaceful my life is. This is better, I thought. The board exam results were released yesterday, and I wasn't sad that I "just" passed it. This is better. Maybe the universe really knows what I deeply want. Because if I had topped it, I would be stressed out by the attention. And deep inside me, I never liked attention.

Many people today do everything to get attention. They put themselves into deep debt or put up a fake persona just to be noticed. They want to be at the top so that they can look down on others. What was my motivation for setting that "topnotcher" goal? Did I want to prove something to everyone? Everyone, who doesn't even matter to me? So, I started to appreciate what I got. "Comparing up versus comparing down." The 16,560 who failed would love to be in my position. It was a win. I won the Art of War.

LOL. It wasn't a war. But whatever I said above was what I thought when I asked myself about what it means to be a winner. And a winner is someone who is content. Anyway, some highlights:

• "We have all heard of victories that result from a quick strike by a mediocre opponent, but we have yet to hear of a single victory gained by clever schemers who let the hostilities drag on. In short, there has never been a single instance where the court has profited from lengthy engagements."
• "The expert in deploying troops will humble the enemy without ever engaging them in battle. He will take their cities without ever attacking, and topple the ruling house without protracted engagements. For always, when contending in the realm, success means keeping yourself whole."
• "If you do not know the enemy, but you know yourself, then you will win and lose by turns. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will lose every battle, certainly."
• "Whoever excels in battle can make himself invincible, but he cannot always make the enemy vulnerable."
• "To be prepared everywhere is to be strong nowhere."
• "The ultimate skill in determining formations lies in assuming no set formation. If there is no form, then their spies embedded in your camp will not be able to discern it, nor will the wisest of their counsellors be able to lay plans against it."
• "If the enemy is close but quiet, he relies on his strategic position."
• "A most important consideration in war is speed. With speed, you can exploit whatever is beyond the enemy's reach. You can take the routes he least expects, and you can attack him before he's prepared."
• "When the enemy gives you an opening, rush in. Tempt him with whatever he lusts for, and then by subtle means determine the date for battle. Never let him know the timing of your attack. The only steadfast rule is to adapt to the enemy's moves, in order to determine the course and outcome of the battle."
• "As the phrase goes, 'He who hesitates is lost.' Hence the saying, 'The brilliant ruler thinks it through, while good commanders refine the plan.' When nought's to gain, move not. Over things of little worth, fight not. Save in direst need, war not."

Okay, that's enough. My backbone hurts. But my last words are: "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." My life is peaceful because I stopped fighting for anything. It will if it must. Stoicism is the cure for stress.

I'm kind of all over the place because I HELL-YEAH-ed to a lot of things, and then I bought a second monitor that smells headache-inducingly new, so I had to reread some parts several times to understand them. I feel bad for not giving this book my full attention because my mind is chaotic at the moment.

Nonetheless, the "hell yeah or no" idea was actually good. I first heard of it years or months ago on an interview (I forgot what) where Derek Sivers was a guest, and then I forgot about it. I remembered it again when it was mentioned on a YouTube video I watched last week, so I got to finish the book just today.

Some highlights (because this is mandatory for me to remember what the book is about):

• "Holding on to an old title gives you satisfaction without action. But success comes from doing, not declaring. By using a title without doing the work, you fool yourself into thinking that future success is assured, thinking, 'This is who I am!' But that premature sense of satisfaction can keep you from doing the hard work necessary."
• "It's liberating to speak in the past tense about what you've done, and only speak in the present tense about what you're actually doing."
• "Some careers come with excuses: The classic novelist thrives in solitude, alone in a cabin in the woods, writing books that reach millions. The classic journalist thrives in a crowd, talking with everyone, building the story from a thousand accounts. The quiet librarian. The aggressive lawyer. The flaky artist. No explanation needed. But when you go against the stereotype, people get confused. The entrepreneur who's not into money. The musician who avoids crowds. The ambitious conservationist. The artist who's into discipline. If you expect criticism in advance and take pride in your unusual stance, you can bash on with a smile, being who you want to be."
• "Public comments are just feedback on something you made. They're worth reading to see how this thing has been perceived. You can even take it as feedback on the public image you've created. All people know is what you've chosen to show them. So if your public persona is coming across wrong, try tweaking it. Never forget that the public you is not you."
• "This is how I feel about culture. We're so surrounded by it that it's impossible to see. Many things we think are true are really just our local culture. We can't see it until we get outside of it."
• "Before you start something, think of the ways it could end. Sometimes, the smart choice is to say no to the whole game."
• "Comparing up versus comparing down: Your happiness depends on where you're focusing. The metaphor is easy to understand, but hard to remember in regular life. If you catch yourself burning with envy or resentment, think like the bronze medalist, not the silver. Change your focus. Instead of comparing up to the next-higher situation, compare down to the next-lower one."
• "The problem is taking any one person's advice too seriously. Ideally, asking advice should be like echolocation. Bounce ideas off of all your surroundings, and listen to all the echoes to get the whole picture. Ultimately, only you know what to do, based on all the feedback you've received and all your personal nuances that no one else knows."
• "Most people overestimate what they can do in one year, and underestimate what they can do in ten years."
• "Some say, 'Just be happy. That's all that matters.' It sounds so simple, it must be profoundly true, right? But, as in Aesop's fable of 'The Ant and the Grasshopper,' you'll be full of regrets if you think of nothing but today and don't prepare for tough times."
• "Sometimes, the world is the same, but my situation has changed. What got me here won't get me there."
• "Once you do something that scared you, you're not scared of it anymore! As you go through life, doing everything that scares you, you fear less and less in the world."

And now, I say hell no to more highlights! Also, I'll slow down my reading from here on because I have more important things to do.

I'm sleepy but not super sleepy, so I've finished this (and it is 3 AM). The most important thing I want to say is that I read this at the right time. Yesterday, I just finished setting my annual goals until 2030 for Sociopoliticool, but while reading this book, "annual" started to look like a bad idea, especially given that I have lots of tasks to accomplish.

The 12 Week Year method sounds perfect in my case, so I will change my timelines. I will instead create a 12 Week Year plan, detailed. May starts tomorrow, so it is a good time to start my first 12 weeks.

And then let's talk about the vision. When I read about the importance of being emotionally connected to your vision (because it keeps you going despite the obstacles if you are passionate), I saw sparkles and confetti around me because, wow, someone gets me. It lightened up my life for a brief moment. I'm not being paid to work overtime here because I own this business, but it doesn't demotivate me. It is my emotional connection to it that keeps me going.

Here are some of my highlights:

• "You've no doubt heard the saying knowledge is power. I disagree. Knowledge is only powerful if you use it, if you act on it. People spend lifetimes acquiring knowledge, but to what purpose? Knowledge alone benefits no one unless the person acquiring it does something with it. And great ideas are worthless unless they are implemented."
• "We mistakenly believe that there is a lot of time left in the year, and we act accordingly. We lack a sense of urgency, not realizing that every week is important, every day is important, every moment is important. Ultimately, effective execution happens daily and weekly!"
• "We have found from experience that to execute successfully, it is essential to have a strong emotional stake in the outcome. Without a compelling reason to choose otherwise, most people will take comfortable actions over uncomfortable ones. The issue is that the important actions are often the uncomfortable ones. In our experience, the number-one thing that you will have to sacrifice to be great, to achieve what you are capable of, and to execute your plans, is your comfort."
• "Your business vision is most powerful when it is developed in light of your personal vision. The reason so many people fail to follow through when things become difficult is due to this lack of connection with their personal lives. Your business objectives are not the end in themselves, but the means to an end. Too often, managers and associates plan for business success but fail to connect with the real power source that will enable them to achieve that success. In essence, the personal vision is the reason why we work in the first place."
• "If you want to know what your future holds, look to your actions; they are the best predictor of your future."
• "Everything you want to accomplish in life requires an investment of your time, so when you want to improve your results, you must face the fact that your supply of time is completely inelastic and perishable."
• "The athlete becomes great not when she breaks a world record and wins a medal. That's when the world recognizes her, but in reality, the event is just the evidence of her greatness. The athlete achieved greatness months, perhaps years, earlier when she decided to run the extra mile, swim the extra laps, or perform just one jump more."
• "Your vision provides you with a line of sight, an emotional link to help you overcome the challenges and execute. When the task seems too difficult or unpleasant, you can reconnect with your vision. It is this emotional connection that will provide you with the inner strength to forge ahead in spite of any difficulties, enabling you to achieve your dreams and desires."
• "To increase your odds of success, one of the most powerful things you can do is to create, and work from, a written plan."
• "It seems like common sense to think that you have to work proportionally harder to earn more, but that kind of thinking is exactly what limits what you can accomplish in life. Think about this: People earning $1,000,000 per year aren't working 10 times harder than people earning $100,000. In fact, they are sometimes working less, but they are working differently."
• "Because commitments will require you to sacrifice, in addition to learning to say no, you will need to train yourself to think about and connect with the longer-term benefits versus the short-term inconvenience and discomfort. Delayed gratification is the productive thought. This is not a concept that most people seem interested in, yet it remains the straightest line to your goals. That is why the first key to effective commitments is a strong desire. The commitment mindset is to choose pleasurable results over pleasurable activity."

Also, I just remembered that the importance of measuring progress was emphasized in the book, because it is not bad. I'm talking about views, subscribers, and other numbers that I honestly didn't care to track before. I care about them now. In fact, I have trackers for all the quantitatives of the business. I will check the numbers monthly!

I finished the first and second books in the series years ago. I felt like I had to read this, too, to close some kind of an open box in my life (because this is the third and last book). The thing about Amanda Lovelace's writing style is that it is poetic, so even though I doubt the "poem-ness" of her poems (because most lines have 1-2 words), I enjoy them a bit. They sound beautiful, and then they are structured creatively, which adds some dramatic elements.

However, something threw me off here: "If they treat you as anything less than royalty, then show them exactly what a mermaid-witch-queen like yourself can accomplish." I've always believed that we shouldn't think of ourselves as special because we aren't. If we think that we deserve only the good stuff, the royalty level kind of treatment, then that's entitlement.

And you are living conditionally.

Just because you did something or you are something, you think you deserve to receive something in return. A particular something: royalty treatment in this case. But life doesn't work that way. And if you "punish" those who hurt and disappointed you by showing them what you've accomplished, will they even care to look? And will your accomplishments even matter if your character isn't even something to be proud of?

Such a quick read. I just went to bed, and then I finished a book. Wow! But seriously, Tao Te Ching was less descriptive than I expected, especially knowing that this has become a religion. Anyone can practice its teachings, though, because simply going with the flow can lead to great things. Here are quotable stanzas (without the breaks) because this is btw a collection of poems:

• "The best way to live is to be like water, for water benefits all things and goes against none of them. It provides for all people and even cleanses those places a man is loath to go."
• "One who lives in accordance with nature does not go against the way of things. He moves in harmony with the present moment, always knowing the truth of just what to do."
• "Become totally empty. Quiet the restlessness of the mind. Only then will you witness everything unfolding from emptiness."
• "Do not flaunt your excellence. Do not rejoice over victory. With the loss of others, weep with sorrow and grief. After winning a battle, do not celebrate; observe the rights of a funeral. One who is bound to action, proud of victory, and delights in the misfortune of others will never gain a thing from this world below Heaven."
• "To become learned, gain daily. To obtain Tao, reduce daily. Reduce and reduce again until all action is reduced to non-action. Then no one is left. Nothing is done yet nothing is left undone."
• "One who speaks does not know. One who knows does not speak."
• "To rule the state, have a known plan. To win a battle, have an unknown plan. To gain the universe, have no plan at all. Let the universe itself reveal to you its splendor."
• "If a person seems wicked, do no cast him away. Awaken him with your words. Elevate him with your deeds. Requite his injury with your kindness. Do not cast him away; cast away his wickedness."
• "Begin your task before it becomes a burden. Put things in order before they get out of hand. Remember, a tree that fills a man's embrace grows from a seedling. A tower nine stories high starts with one brick. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
• "He who wishes to rule over the people must speak as if below them. He who wishes to lead the people must walk as if behind them. So the Sage rules over the people, but he does not weigh them down. He leads the people, but he does not block their way."
• "One with true virtue always seeks a way to give. One who lacks true virtue always seeks a way to get. To the giver comes the fullness of life, to the taker just an empty hand."

Non-action is not the best action to take sometimes. I see a similarity between Taoism and Stoicism: If something didn't go your way or according to plan, don't stress over it. Go with the flow because it may lead you to a better place or position.