The Tao of Mom: The Wisdom of Mothers from East to West

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The TAO of MOM

Andrews McMeel Publishing

Chapter One

You will be happier when you stop thinking, I'll be happier when ... -Mom

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The intelligent believe only half of what they hear, and the wise know which half. -Great-Grandma Edi

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We write our own destiny; we become what we do. -Madame Chiang Kai-shek

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Embrace simplicity. -Obaa-san

The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow; the rainbow won't wait while you do the work. -Patricia Clafford

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Do your best in all you do-not because the task is worth it but because you are. -Mom

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It is difficult to find happiness within and impossible to find it without. -Kaneko Ikeda

The heroes of the next war will be those who prevent it. -Great-Grandma Edi

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What really matters is not whether we have problems but how we go through them. -Rosa Parks

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Do not choose for others what you would not choose for yourself. -Alima Oyun

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Keep good company, and wisdom grows. With good friends, even the foolish become wise. -Kisagotami

Education must start from birth. -Maria Montessori

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Everything you want to become on the outside you must first become on the inside. -Mom

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The more we sweat for peace, the less we bleed in war. -Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

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We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. -Anaïs Nin

Since your idea of fulfillment is your own creation, you must be the one who creates your own fulfillment. -Mom

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How one wins reveals much of one's character. How one loses reveals all of it. -Obaa-san

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As your intention goes, so goes your reward. -Nirmala Sundari

Humanity will thrive when the world appreciates the value of diversity. -Indira Gandhi

Ignoring the facts never changes the facts. -Mom

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The surest way to remember an experience is to try to forget it. -Hikari Agata

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Timing is everything. Even a terrible mistake can become a blessing if the timing is right. -Obaa-san

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If you wish to find happiness, do good. If there is something you can do for others, step forward and volunteer. If you put off that opportunity, you are letting your own chance for happiness slip away from you. -Elsie Tu

How you spend your time reveals your priorities. -Aunt Kimiko

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Even the most capable one was once a beginner. -Mom

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Water can clearly mirror the sky so long as its surface is undisturbed. Likewise, the mind can reflect a true image of Self only when fully at peace. -Indra Devi

With wisdom, people can create success out of failure. Without wisdom, success can create failures out of people. -Miri Konewa

The strongest force in the world is gentleness. -Han Suyin

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What you teach your children you also teach your children's children. -Great-Grandma Edi

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There is always more than meets the eye. -Lady Marasaki Shikibu

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Our shortcomings irritate us most when we perceive them in others. -Mom

Prejudice is often no more than a lazy person's substitute for thinking. -Aunt Tomee

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Humanity is not divided into two opposing camps of good and evil. It is made up of those who are capable of learning and those who are incapable of learning. By learning, I mean the process of absorbing lessons in life that enable us to increase peace and happiness in our world. -Aung San Sun Kyi

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We are all a reflection of our mothers' secret poetry as well as their hidden anger. -Audre Lorde

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To know oneself is to gain the most valuable knowledge. -Obaa-san

When we are under the power of evil. it is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty. -Simone Weil

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You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. -Indira Gandhi

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O friend, understand The heart Is like the sea, Hiding treasures All its own. -Mirabai

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Conscience is what makes a boy tell his mother before his sister does. -Great-Aunt Iko

Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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If you're not happy without it, you won't be happy with it. -Mom

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The spirit of youth is constant and alive. It never deserts one, even in the face of the greatest suffering. -Diki Tsering

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The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of other people's rights. -Ayn Rand

"Do or die." This mantra is imprinted on my heart. -Kastur Gandhi

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It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end. -Ursula K. Le Guin

You must dream your wildest dreams to realize what is beyond your wildest dreams. -Obaa-san

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When a pair of magpies takes flight together, they envy not a pair of phoenixes. -Lady Ho

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The greatest form of control is self-control. -Mom

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If you seek harmony, disregard the faults of others and examine your own faults. See no one as a stranger. Learn to make the entire world your own. Indeed, this whole world is your own. -Sarada Devi

Only through justice for all will the world know security for all. -Aditi Maya Rai

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Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -Muriel Strode

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Modesty is the art of encouraging others to find out for themselves how wonderful you are. -Fumiko Hayashi

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With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see. -Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Difficulties, opposition, criticism-these things are meant to be overcome, and there is a special joy in facing them and coming out on top. It is only when there is nothing but praise that life loses its charm. -Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

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Perhaps there is nothing in the world so painful as feeling that one is not valued. -Sei Shonagon

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Children become the kinds of people their best teachers convinced them they could become. -Mom

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If given a choice, I would have certainly chosen to be who I am: one of the oppressed instead of one of the oppressors. -Miriam Makeha

My mother taught me that people should be judged by the respect they have for themselves and others. Her words helped me do the hard things I had to do later in life. -Rosa Parks

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Your past is your history, not your identity. -Obaa-san

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Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. -Marie Curie

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Don't be surprised if, when people collaborate with others, they tend to regard their own contributions as the most important. -Yang Chiang

A mother's influence lasts forever. -Japanese proverb

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Dreams grow peace. -Aunt Kimiko

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To be actively disciplined, a child must first learn the difference between good and evil; and the task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility, and evil with activity. -Maria Montessori

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Fear should never prevent you from doing what you know is right. To be inhibited from doing what you know is right. that is truly dangerous. -Aung San Sun Kyi

Abuse is cyclical. To break the cycle, it is up to those who have been abused to never abuse others. the oppressed to never oppress others. -Mangala Sharma

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Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard. -Anne Sexton

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If you don't love what you're doing, start doing what you love. -Mom

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People who don't get into scrapes are a great deal less interesting than those who do. -Lady Murasaki Shikibu

There is no substitute for hard work. -Obaa-san

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Why is it that as the world becomes more "civilized," we need more locks, keys, and passwords? -Great-Grandma Edi

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The process of maturing is an art to be learned, an effort to be sustained. By the age of fifty you have made yourself what you are, and if it is good, it is better than your youth. -Marya Mannes

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Loneliness is a choice. -Toora Miah

Morality is the most essential characteristic of humanity. -Yeshe Tsogyel

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Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.

Continues...

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Excerpted from The TAO of MOM by TARO GOLD Copyright © 2004 by Lionstead Press, Inc.. Excerpted by permission.
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