“Taoist philosophy … is essentially monistic. … Matter and energy, Yang and Yin, heaven and earth, are conceived of as essentially one or as two coexistent poles of one indivisible whole.”

—  Bruce Lee

Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 23

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Taoist philosophy … is essentially monistic. … Matter and energy, Yang and Yin, heaven and earth, are conceived of as e…" by Bruce Lee?
Bruce Lee photo
Bruce Lee193
Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and f… 1940–1973

Related quotes

Koichi Tohei photo

“The absolute universe is one. Then two opposing forces appeared, and the relative world was born. In the orient this dualism is called ‘yin’ and ‘yang’, in the west, ‘plus’ and ‘minus’.”

Koichi Tohei (1920–2011) Japanese aikidoka

8 : Plus life
Ki Sayings (2003)

Lisa See photo

“There is no life without death. That is the true meaning of yin and yang”

Lisa See book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Source: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Ken Wilber photo

“'What's my philosophy? In a word, integral. And what on earth — or in heaven — do I mean by "integral"? The dictionary meaning is fairly simple: "comprehensive, balanced, inclusive, essential for completeness."”

Ken Wilber (1949) American writer and public speaker

Short definition, tall order.
An Integral Spirituality

“That is the truth. Not the hammer and sickle. Not the stars and stripes. Not the cross. Not the sun. Not gold. Not yin and yang.”

John Fowles book The Magus

But the smile.
Source: The Magus (1965), Ch. 21

“In order to see the relation between philosophy as rigorous science and the alternative to it clearly, one must look at the political conflict between the two antagonists, i. e. at the essential character of that conflict.”

Leo Strauss (1899–1973) Classical philosophy specialist and father of neoconservativism

Philosophy as Rigorous Science and Political Philosophy (1971)

“The suicide bomber is an explosion of a contradiction in its paradox, victim and victimizer, yin and yang, two sides of the coin, fire bomb and fire extinguisher, prosecutor and defendant, hangman and hanged.”

Giannina Braschi book United States of Banana

United States of Banana (2011)

Thomas Watson photo

“The two great graces essential to a saint in this life are faith and repentance. These are the two wings by which he flies to heaven.”

Thomas Watson (1616–1686) English nonconformist preacher and author

The Doctrine of Repentance (1668)

“The world's present industrial civilization is handicapped by the coexistence of two universal, overlapping, and incompatible intellectual systems: the accumulated knowledge of the last four centuries of the properties and interrelationships of matter and energy; and the associated monetary culture which has evolved from folkways of prehistoric origin.The first of these two systems has been responsible for the spectacular rise, principally during the last two centuries, of the present industrial system and is essential for its continuance. The second, an inheritance from the prescientific past, operates by rules of its own having little in common with those of the matter-energy system. Nevertheless, the monetary system, by means of a loose coupling, exercises a general control over the matter-energy system upon which it is superimposed.Despite their inherent incompatibilities, these two systems during the last two centuries have had one fundamental characteristic in common, namely exponential growth, which has made a reasonably stable coexistence possible. But, for various reasons, it is impossible for the matter-energy system to sustain exponential growth for more than a few tens of doublings, and this phase is by now almost over. The monetary system has no such constraints, and according to one of its most fundamental rules, it must continue to grow by compound interest.”

M. King Hubbert (1903–1989) American geoscientist

"Two Intellectual Systems: Matter-energy and the Monetary Culture." Summary, by M. King Hubbert, of a seminar he taught at MIT Energy Laboratory, 30 September 1981, recovered from http://www.hubbertpeak.com/hubbert/monetary.htm

Dr. Seuss photo

“Words and pictures are yin and yang. Married, they produce a progeny more interesting than either parent.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

“One way … in which a political philosophy can be ideological is by presenting a relatively marginal issue as if it were central and essential.”

Raymond Geuss book Philosophy and Real Politics

Source: Philosophy and Real Politics (2008), p. 54.

Related topics