Lao Tzu Quotes
-
The soft and weak can overcome the hard and strong.
-
Open yourself to the truth, then trust in your natural responses, and everything will fall into place.
-
To practice virtue is to selflessly offer assistance to others, giving without limitation one's time, abilities, and possessions in service, whenever and wherever needed, without prejudice concerning the identity of those in need.
-
Weapons are ominous tools. They are abhorred by all creatures. Anyone who follows the Way shuns them.
-
The more clever and cunning people are, the stranger the events will be.
-
Treat the large as the small and the few as the many.
-
Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath.
-
The well-run group is not a battlefield of egos.
-
If you search everywhere, yet cannot find what you are seeking, it is because what you seek is already in your possession.
-
The rigid tree will be felled.
-
Mask your brightness. Be at one with the dust of the earth. This is primal union.
-
Nature doesn't make long speeches.
-
Not valuing wealth prevents theft.
-
Be humble and you will remain entire. The sages do not display themselves, therefore they shine. They do not approve themselves, therefore they are noted. They do not praise themselves, therefore they have merit. They do not glory in themselves, therefore they excel.
-
My words have an origin. My deeds have a sovereign. Truly, because people do not understand this, they do not understand me.
-
The sage attends to the belly, and not to what he sees.
-
The sage acts without taking credit. He accomplishes without dwelling on it. He does not want to display his worth.
-
Build up virtue, and you master all.
-
Displaying riches and titles with pride brings about one's downfall.
-
Perfection is the willingness to be imperfect.
-
We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use.
-
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.
-
Giving to others selflesly and anonymously, radiating light throughout the world and illuminating your own darkness, your virtue becomes a sanctuary for yourself and all beings.
-
Wise men hear and see as little children do.