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Tao Te Ching — Chapter 58: Chapter 62

[FN#10] The Sanskrit has this play on the double meaning of Atman.

I mean that both of them ought to be quick to see, and swift to overtake the enemy when they see him; and strong too if, when they have caught him, they have to fight with him.

And the young should be trained in both kinds, and we begin with the false?

[Literally, "the leader of the first division will be torn away."]

Therefore a sage has said, 'He who accepts his state's reproach, Is hailed therefore its altars' lord; To him who bears men's direful woes They all the name of King accord.'

(Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; he is beyond all consideration of profit or injury; of nobility or meanness:--he is the noblest man under heaven.

Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. (So it is with) all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered.

[With these words, the chapter would naturally come to an end. But there now follows a long appendix in the shape of an extract from an earlier book on War, now lost, but apparently extant at the time when Sun Tzŭ wrote. The style of this fragment is not noticeably different from that of Sun Tzŭ himself, but no commentator raises a doubt as to its genuineness.]

And what shall be their education? Can we find a better than the traditional sort?—and this has two divisions, gymnastic for the body, and music for the soul.

The general who does not understand these, may be well acquainted with the configuration of the country, yet he will not be able to turn his knowledge to practical account.

Tao Te Ching — Chapter 62: Chapter 66

Now the first and greatest of necessities is food, which is the condition of life and existence.

It is a military axiom not to advance uphill against the enemy, nor to oppose him when he comes downhill.

Who can take his own superabundance and therewith serve all under heaven? Only he who is in possession of the Tao!

Whether to concentrate or to divide your troops, must be decided by circumstances.

And an art requiring as much attention as shoemaking?

when you capture new territory, cut it up into allotments for the benefit of the soldiery.

The Republic — Chapter 6: Book II (part 2/3)

Whatsoever is material, doth soon vanish away into the common substance of the whole; and whatsoever is formal, or, whatsoever doth animate that which is material, is soon resumed into the common reason of the whole; and the fame and memory of anything, is soon swallowed up by the general age and duration of the whole.