Lao Tzu Quotes
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What Heaven detests, who knows why? Even the sage considers it difficult.
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Rushing into action, you fail. Trying to grasp things, you lose them. Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe.
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Accomplish but do not boast, accomplish without show, accomplish without arrogance, accomplish without grabbing, accomplish without forcing.
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That, which others compress - will widen up and open. That, which others weaken - will strengthen. That, which others destroy - will blossom. Whoever wished to take something from the other, will inevitably loose his own.
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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.
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Wise men hear and see as little children do.
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The truly great man dwells on what is real and not what is on the surface.
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We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it liveable.
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The soft and weak can overcome the hard and strong.
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Those who know are wise. Those who know themselves are enlightened.
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Those who are content suffer no disgrace.
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The ancients said: Hulk to be whole.
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Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?
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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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What is firmly rooted cannot be pulled out.
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Stillness overcomes heat.
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A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. Thus by nature's own decree, the soft and gentle are triumphant.
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The supreme rulers are hardly known by their subjects. The lesser are loved and praised. The even lesser are feared. The least are despised.
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Every being in the universe is an expression of the Tao. It springs into existence, unconscious, perfect, free, takes on a physical body, lets circumstances complete it. That is why every being spontaneously honors the Tao. The Tao gives birth to all beings, nourishes them, maintains them, cares for them, comforts them, protects them, takes them back to itself, creating without possessing, acting without expecting, guiding without interfering. That is why love of the Tao is in the very nature of things.
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Mold clay into a bowl. The empty space makes it useful.
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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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Peace and quiet govern the world.
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Do not make them (people) weary at their work. If you do not make them weary, they will not be weary of you.
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The reality of the building does not consist in the roof and walls, but in the space within to be lived in.