Home > Topic > their opposites
1 " [W]e conceive the Devil as a necessary part of a respectable view of cosmology. Ours is a divided empire in which certain ideas and emotions and actions are of God, and their opposites are of Lucifer. It is as impossible for most men to conceive of a morality without sin as of an earth without 'sky'. Since 1692 a great but superficial change has wiped out God's beard and the Devil's horns, but the world is still gripped between two diametrically opposed absolutes. The concept of unity, in which positive and negative are attributes of the same force, in which good and evil are relative, ever-changing, and always joined to the same phenomenon - such a concept is still reserved to the physical sciences and to the few who have grasped the history of ideas. "
― Arthur Miller , The Crucible
2 " Everything has its " that," everything has its " this." From the point of view of " that" you cannot see it, but through understanding you can know it. So I say, " that" comes out of " this" and " this" depends on " that" - which is to say that " this" and " that" give birth to each other. But where there is birth there must be death; where there is death there must be birth. Where there is acceptability there must be unacceptability; where there is unacceptability there must be acceptability. Where there is recognition of right there must be recognition of wrong; where there is recognition of wrong there must be recognition of right. Therefore the sage does not proceed in such a way, but illuminates all in the light of Heaven. He too recognizes a " this," but a " this" which is also " that," a " that" which is also " this." His " that" has both a right and a wrong in it; his " this" too has both a right and a wrong in it. So, in fact, does he still have a " this" and " that" ? Or does he in fact no longer have a " this" and " that" ? A state in which " this" and " that" no longer find their opposites is called the hinge of the Way. When the hinge is fitted into the socket, it can respond endlessly. Its right then is a single endlessness and its wrong too is a single endlessness. So, I say, the best thing to use is clarity. "
3 " Economy prudence and a simple life are the sure masters of need and will often accomplish that which their opposites with a fortune at hand will fail to do. "