Skip to content

God can only set in motion:
He cannot control the things he has made.

— Tao Yuanming

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

Translated by Arthur Waley

Topics

God

More quotes by Tao Yuanming

At a single glance I survey the whole Universe.
He will never be happy, whom such pleasures fail to please!

I would gladly wander in Paradise,
But it is far away and there is no road.

I beg you listen to this advice —
When you get wine, be sure to drink it.

The pure air
is cleansed of lingering lees
And mysteriously,
Heaven's realms are high.

While picking asters 'neath the Eastern fence,
My gaze upon the Southern mountain rests.

All Tao Yuanming quotes →

You may also like

Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God.

Basil of Caesarea

Once you accept the existence of God — however you define him, however you explain your relationship to him — then you are caught forever with his presence in the center of all things.

Morris West The Clowns of God (1981)

God seeks comrades and claims love,
the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.

Rabindranath Tagore Fireflies (1928)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tao Yuanming (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.