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I am free from ties and can live a life of retirement.
When I rise from sleep, I play with books and harp.

— Tao Yuanming

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Notes from Wikiquote

Translated by Arthur Waley

Topics

Books

More quotes by Tao Yuanming

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

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.

All Tao Yuanming quotes →

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

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.