Lao Tzu Quotes
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Not valuing wealth prevents theft.
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Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you.
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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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Force is followed by loss of strength. This is not the way of the Tao. That which goes against the Tao comes to an early end.
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Close your mouth, block off your senses, blunt your sharpness, untie your knots, soften your glare, settle your dust. This is the primal identity.
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To know you have enough is to be rich.
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He who has no faith in others shall find no faith in them.
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Yet mystery and imagination arise from the same source. This source is called darkness ... Darkness within darkness, the gateway to all understanding.
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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.
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When the ancient Masters said, "If you want to be given everything, give everything up," they weren't using empty phrases. Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself.
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Things exalted then decay. This is going against the Way. What goes against the Way meets an early end.
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Wise men hear and see as little children do.
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If people do not revere the Law of Nature It will adversely affect them. If they accept It with knowledge and reverence, It will accommodate them with balance and harmony.
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When life begins we are tender and weak When life ends we are stiff and rigid All things, including the grass and trees, are soft and pliable in life and dry in brittle in death So the soft and supple are the companion of life While the stiff and unyielding are the companions of death An army that cannot yield will be defeated A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind Thus by Nature's own decree the hard and strong are defeated while the soft and gentle are triumphant.
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There is one appointed supreme executioner. Truly, trying to take the place of the supreme executioner is like trying to carve wood like a master carpenter. Of those who try to carve wood like a master carpenter, there are few who do not injure their hands.
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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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The wise trusts not only to his physical eyes - thus he can see clearly.
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True words are not pleasing. Pleasing words are not true.
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The separate parts make no carriage.
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If you correct your mind the rest of your life will fall into place.
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The ten thousand things flourish and then each returns to the root from which it came. Returning to the root is stillness. Through stillness each fulfils its destiny.