is an excellent book by Raymond Smullyan (isbn 0-06-067-469-5). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
The Taoist strikes me as one who is not so much in search of something he hasn't, but who is enjoying what he has.
Just what is the Tao; how should one define the Tao? Perhaps one of my favourite definitons is: "the reason things are as they are."
"Don't look for the meaning; look for the use" [Ludwig Wittgenstein]
Is it completely out of the question that there may be objects in the universe which are so sensitive that the very act of naming them throws them out of existence?
It is unnameable because it changes in the very process of naming it.
The situation is perfectly analogous to a man who does not trust his dog and keeps him perpetually chained. The chaining process obviously makes the dog vicious, and the man then says, "You see why such a vicious dog has to be chained!"
You are trying to force that which can thrive only if it is not forced.
Kindness cannot be taught by harshness - not by any amount of harshness.
Freedom is doing what one likes: Zen is liking what one does.
The problem of hiring astrology professors is relatively easy. To hire an astrologer professor, all one has to do is to cast his horoscope and see if he would make a good astrology professor.
My immediate reaction to the remark "one should not be too tolerant" was to be intolerant of it.
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