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Does one scent appeal more than another? Do you prefer this flavor, or that feeling? Is your practice sacred and your work profane? Then your mind is separated: from itself, from oneness, from the Tao.
Lao Tzu -
Therefore, if a great kingdom humbles itself before a small kingdom, it shall make that small kingdom its prize. And if a small kingdom humbles itself before a great kingdom, it shall win over that great kingdom. Thus the one humbles itself in order to attain, the other attains because it is humble. If the great kingdom has no further desire than to bring men together and to nourish them, the small kingdom will have no further desire than to enter the service of the other. But in order that both may have their desire, the great one must learn humility.
Lao Tzu
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Build up virtue, and you master all.
Lao Tzu -
Those who take long steps cannot keep the pace.
Lao Tzu -
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.
Lao Tzu -
The most fundamental seems fickle.
Lao Tzu -
. . . These are notions of the mind, which is like a knife, always chipping away at the Tao, trying to render it graspable and manageable. But that which is beyond form is ungraspable, and that which is beyond knowing is unmanageable. There is, however, this consolation: She who lets go of the knife will find the Tao at her fingertips.
Lao Tzu -
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.
Lao Tzu
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Filling life exceedingly is called ominous.
Lao Tzu -
There was something that finished chaos, born before Heaven and Earth.
Lao Tzu -
A skillful commander is not overbearing. A skillful fighter does not become angry. A skillful conqueror does not compete with people. One who is skillful in using men puts himself below them. This is called the strength to use men. This is called matching Heaven, The highest principle of old.
Lao Tzu -
Those who know are wise. Those who know themselves are enlightened.
Lao Tzu -
Wise men hear and see as little children do.
Lao Tzu -
Take [preventive] action before things happen. Establish order before disorder has begun.
Lao Tzu
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People are hard to govern. The rulers interfere with too much. That is why people are hard to govern.
Lao Tzu -
Be truly whole, and all things will return to you.
Lao Tzu -
The master does his job and then stops. He understands that the universe is forever out of control, and that trying to dominate events goes against the current of the Tao.
Lao Tzu -
Because he (the Sage) demands no honor, he will never be dishonored.
Lao Tzu -
The reality of the building does not consist in the roof and walls, but in the space within to be lived in.
Lao Tzu -
The Tao never acts with force, yet there is nothing that it can not do.
Lao Tzu
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What is firmly rooted cannot be pulled out.
Lao Tzu -
Those who praise themselves do not prevail.
Lao Tzu -
The mark of a moderate man is freedom from his own ideas. Tolerant like the sky, all-pervading like sunlight, firm like a mountain, supple like a tree in the wind, he has no destination in view and makes use of anything life happens to bring his way.
Lao Tzu -
The wise man does not lay up treasure. The more he expends on others, the more he gains for himself. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.
Lao Tzu