"Clay is used to make vases, but..." - Quote by Lao Tzu
Clay is used to make vases, but it is the emptiness they contain that makes them useful.
More by Lao Tzu
“The ego is entranced by ... names and ideas... However names and concepts only block your perception of this Great Oneness. Therefore it is wise to ignore them. Those who live inside their egos are continually bewildered.”
“What is strong and rigid is snapped and laid low. What is flexible and soft will always prevail.”
“In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple.”
More on Emptiness
“And can it be that in a world so full and busy the loss of one creature makes a void so wide and deep that nothing but the width and depth of eternity can fill it up!”
“Clay is molded to form a cup, But it is on its non-being that the utility of the cup depends. Doors and windows are cut out to make a room, But it is on its non-being that the utility of the room depends. Therefore turn being into advantage, and turn non-being into utility.”
“Thirty spokes meet in the hub. Where a wheel isn't is where it's useful. Hollowed out, clay makes a pot. Where the pots not is where it's useful. Cut doors and windows to make a room. Where the room isn't, there's room for you. So the profit in what is, is in the use of what isn't.”
More on Usefulness
“Every industrious man, in every lawful calling, is a useful man. And one principal reason why men are so often useless is that they neglect their own profession or calling, and divide and shift their attention among a multiplicity of objects and pursuits.”
“Conservation means development as much as it does protection.A man's usefulness depends upon his living up to his ideals insofar as he can.”
“Lose no time; be always employed in something useful.”