Lao Tzu Quotes
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Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.
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Use the light that is in you to recover your natural clearness of sight.
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We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.
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Conduct your triumph as a funeral.
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That which shrinks must first expand.
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ALL things in Nature work silently. They come into being and possess nothing. They fulfil their functions and make no claim.
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Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.
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To consider this desirable would be to delight in the slaughter of men; and he who delights in the slaughter of men cannot get his will in the kingdom.
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The feminine values are the fountain of bliss. Know the masculine, Keep to the feminine.
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When the emperor is crowned or the three dukes are appointed, rather than sending a gift of jade carried by four horses, remain still and offer the Way.
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Displaying riches and titles with pride brings about one's downfall.
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To rejoice in conquest is to rejoice in murder.
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Holding on to the weak is called strength.
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Superior leaders get things done with very little motion. They impart instruction not through many words, but through a few deeds. They keep informed about everything but interfere hardly at all. They are catalysts, and though things would not get done as well if they were not there, when they succeed they take no credit. And, because they take no credit, credit never leaves them.
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The wise man is one who knows what he does not know.
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Those who die without being forgotten get longevity.
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Whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. What is soft is strong.
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The Tao is unpredictable to those that live according to plans. Only those who have no agenda are in harmony with the Tao.
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There is no calamity greater than lightly engaging in war.
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Stillness is the ruler of haste.
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The greatest virtue is to follow the Way utterly.
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Build up virtue, and you master all.
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The Master keeps her mind always at one with the Tao; that is what gives her her radiance. The Tao is ungraspable. How can her mind be at one with it? Because she doesn't cling to ideas. The Tao is dark and unfathomable. How can it make her radiant? Because she lets it. Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not. How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see.
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Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath.