8 Quotes by Michael Puett

Our habits limit what we can see, access, sense, and know.

Our lives begin in the everyday and stay in the everyday. Only in the everyday can we begin to create truly great worlds.

You can dam and direct the water, and you can force it to remain on the top of a mountain without flowing down. But is this what water's nature really is? It is what you have done to it that makes it so. Humans can also be made to be not good in the same way. "- Mencius

You do not yet understand life - how could you understand death?"- Confucius

We tend to believe that to change the world, we have to think big. Confucius wouldn’t dispute this, but he would likely also say. Don’t ignore the small. Don’t forget the “pleases” and “thank yous.” Change doesn’t happen until people alter their behavior, and they don’t alter their behavior unless they start with the small.

Ming is not just about the tragedies that befall us. It’s about the good things, too; the unexpected opportunities, unforeseen chances to do something we love, the chance encounter with someone who will change the trajectory of our whole life. When you hold too tightly to a plan, you risk missing out on these things. And when you wake up one day in that future, you will feel boxed in by a life that, at best, reflects only a piece of who you thought you were at one moment in time.

Confucius’s disciples frequently asked him to define goodness. He would give each of them a different answer each time, depending on the situation. That’s because Confucian goodness is not something you can define in the abstract. It’s the ability to respond well to others; the development of a sensibility that enables you to behave in ways that are good for those around you and to draw out their own better sides.

When you hold too tightly to a plan, you risk missing out on these things. And when you wake up one day in that future, you will feel boxed in by a life that, at best, reflects only a piece of who you thought you were at one moment in time.