Political Aspects
Unlike Confucianism, Taoism favors philosophical anarchism, pluralism and laissez-faire-government. According to Laozi, the best way to govern is not to govern (cf. wu-wei). He has been considered as one of the first classical liberals, as he wrote in the Daodejing: "The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people become." Also Zhuangzi was along the same lines. On the other hand, politics never have been a main issue in Taoism.
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Famous quotes containing the words political and/or aspects:
“My political enemies I can freely forgive; but as for who abused me when I was serving my country in the field, and those who attacked me for serving my country—Doctor, that is a different case.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Grammar is a tricky, inconsistent thing. Being the backbone of speech and writing, it should, we think, be eminently logical, make perfect sense, like the human skeleton. But, of course, the skeleton is arbitrary, too. Why twelve pairs of ribs rather than eleven or thirteen? Why thirty-two teeth? It has something to do with evolution and functionalism—but only sometimes, not always. So there are aspects of grammar that make good, logical sense, and others that do not.”
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