Lao Tzu Quotes
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From caring comes courage.
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By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.
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The Wise Man is square but not sharp, honest but not not malign, straight but not severe, bright but not dazzling.
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Purity and stillness give the correct law to all under heaven.
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Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.
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Can you love or guide someone without any kind of expectation?
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To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go: for just letting it go is what makes it stay.
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Going on means going far, going far means returning.
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Knowing honor, but clinging to disgrace, you become the valley of the world.
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Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
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The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, 'We did it ourselves.'
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Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle. A tree that is unbending is easily broken.
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Softness triumphs over hardness, feebleness over strength. What is more malleable is always superior over that which is immoveable. This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them, of mastery through adaptation.
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The words of truth are always paradoxical.
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If I have even just a little sense, I will walk on the main road and my only fear will be of straying from it. Keeping to the main road is easy, But people love to be sidetracked.
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Great indeed is the sublimity of the Creative, to which all beings owe their beginning and which permeates all heaven.
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The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.
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The sage is not ill, because he sees illness as illness.
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Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.
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He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.
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The wise stand out because they see themselves as part of the Whole. They shine because they don't want to impress. They achieve great things because they don't look for recognition. Their wisdom is contained in what they are, not their opinions. They refuse to argue, so no-one argues with them.
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To realize that our knowledge is ignorance, This is a noble insight. To regard our ignorance as knowledge, This is mental sickness. Only when we are sick of the sickness Shall we cease to be sick. The Sage is not sick, being sick of sickness; This is the secret of health.
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In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.
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When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.