Tao Te Ching 13-28

3 of these 16 books caught my attention. "Accept disgrace willingly. Accept misfortune as the human condition."(13). This passage I found most intriguing, for it is most ironic. We as humans are proud and greedy, and are not often humble. But as it is mentioned in this passage, we are meant to be imperfect and unfortunate, which is precisely all that we deny, defeat.

"When there is no peace within the family, Filial piety and devotion will arise."(18). In this passage, it is shown how one bad thing leads to a good one. I believe this to be a very true part of life. When something bad happens to us, there is something good to come from it, only we most times forget to look for it.

"Not boasting, they recieve recognition. Not braggin, they never falter. They do not quarrel, So no one quarrels with them."(22). I believe that this passage brings together both previous books. Its ironical because its saying that through wu and wu-wei you achieve what you want. This I find is something that at first may seem ironic, but in the end, it is just logical. Only we humans have turned logic to irony because it doesn't seem to benefit us, for who would have ever thought that by not doing or not being, one would recieve something in return? We have always live under the idea that we may only achieve what we want by acting upon it. But the truth is that there is more than one way of getting what we want, as it is manifested throughout the theories of the Tao.