Opening lines, p. 104
Variant translations:
What is God-given is called nature; to follow nature is called Tao (the Way); to cultivate the Way is called culture.
As translated by Lin Yutang in The Importance of Living (1937), p. 143
What is God-given is called human nature.
To fulfill that nature is called the moral law (Tao).
The cultivation of the moral law is called culture.
As translated by Lin Yutang in From Pagan to Christian (1959), p. 85
The Doctrine of the Mean
“We know all their gods; they ignore ours. What they call our sins are our gods, and what they call their gods, we name otherwise.”
In "Gods", ADAM International Review, No. 299 (1962)
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Natalie Clifford Barney 8
writer and salonist 1876–1972Related quotes
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“We, by our arts may be called the grandsons of God.”
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), X Studies and Sketches for Pictures and Decorations
Source: On the Gods and Other Essays
Source: Reason: The Only Oracle Of Man (1784), Ch. V Section II - Containing Observations on the Providence and Agency of God, as it Respects the Natural and Moral World, with Strictures on Revelation in General
Context: The idea of a God we infer from our experimental dependence on something superior to ourselves in wisdom, power and goodness, which we call God; our senses discover to us the works of God which we call nature, and which is a manifest demonstration of his invisible essence. Thus it is from the works of nature that we deduce the knowledge of a God, and not because we have, or can have any immediate knowledge of, or revelation from him.
“Our talents are the gift that God gives to us… What we make of our talents is our gift back to God”