Lao Tzu Quotes

The highest virtue is not virtuous. Therefore it has virtue. The lowest virtue holds on to virtue. Therefore it has no virtue.

Lao Tzu

• Virtue
• Holds

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• A ruler makes use of the majority and neglects the minority, and so he does not devote himself to virtue but to law.

  

  Han Fei
  • Law
  • Virtue
  • Himself

• Compassion is not a popular virtue.

  

  Karen Armstrong
  • Popular
  • Compassion
  • Virtue

• A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy.

  

  Samuel Butler
  • Like
  • Gold
  • Virtue

• Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

  

  Napoleon Bonaparte
  • History
  • Philosophy
  • Virtue

• To every object there correspond an ideally closed system of truths that are true of it and, on the other hand, an ideal system of possible cognitive processes by virtue of which the object and the truths about it would be given to any cognitive subject.

  

  Edmund Husserl
  • True
  • Hand
  • Virtue

• Virtue has a veil, vice a mask.

  

  Victor Hugo
  • Beauty
  • Virtue
  • Mask

• Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.

  

  Baruch Spinoza
  • Happiness
  • Virtue
  • Reward

• As far as I'm concerned I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

  

  Albert Einstein
  • Virtue
  • Concerned
  • Prefer

• Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.

  

  George Bernard Shaw
  • Virtue
  • Vice
  • Desiring

• Self-denial is not a virtue: it is only the effect of prudence on rascality.

  

  George Bernard Shaw
  • Virtue
  • Effect
  • Prudence

• Netflix did it right and focused on all the things that have replaced the dumb, raw numbers of the Nielsen world - they embraced targeted marketing and 'brand' as a virtue higher than ratings.

  

  Kevin Spacey
  • World
  • Virtue
  • Humor

• We are secure, not because we hold tightly to Jesus, but because He holds tightly to us.

  

  R. C. Sproul
  • Jesus
  • Secure
  • Holds

• You cannot lift others to virtue on the one hand if you are entertaining vice on the other.

  

  D. Todd Christofferson
  • Hand
  • Hands
  • Virtue

• It is not in virtue of its liberty that the human will attains to grace, it is much rather by grace that it attains to liberty.

  

  Saint Augustine
  • Liberty
  • Virtue
  • Grace

• Virtue consists in doing our duty in the several relations we sustain, in respect to ourselves, to our fellowmen, and to God, as known from reason, conscience, and revelation.

  

  Archibald Alexander
  • God
  • Respect
  • Virtue

• There is that in the soul of man which must respond to the highest in virtue. It may not respond at once. Human nature can easily be over-faced by examples too remote and austere. Moreover, human nature can easily deny God because the whole race has long been in rebellion against Him. Yet there is that in human nature which calls out to the supreme examples of virtue: owns, as it were, the intention of God who made it, and feels the unmistakable homesickness of the soul.

  

  Bill Vaughan
  • God
  • Long
  • May

• Virtue lives when Beauty dies.

  

  Bill Vaughan
  • Beauty
  • Virtue
  • Dies

• It all seemed a hollow sham now - that strict code, that conscientious virtue that condemned her to the sterile joys of pious women! No, no, she'd had enough of that; she wanted to live!

  

  Emile Zola
  • Live
  • Women
  • She

• Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate, Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving.

  

  William Shakespeare
  • Love
  • Hate
  • Virtue

• I used to kind of go for it, right? Like, I'd be the one who would say, 'All right, there's Kate Moss. I'm going to try to make out with her.'

  

  Dan Colen
  • Kind
  • Right
  • Try

• For as long as they praise you, never forget that it is not yet your own path that you walk, but another person's.

  

  Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Forget
  • Walk
  • Praise

• The drama teacher that I had in high school, back in Texas, was the only teacher who didn't kick me out of his class. He turned me on to 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.' I had picked up Dylan with 'Bringing It All Back Home,' and he turned me on to the first couple of albums, which I hadn't heard.

  

  Steve Earle
  • School
  • Home
  • Teacher

• The highest virtue is not virtuous. Therefore it has virtue. The lowest virtue holds on to virtue. Therefore it has no virtue.

  

  Lao Tzu
  • Virtue
  • Holds