Lao Tzu Quotes
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When Simplicity is broken up, it is made into instruments. Evolved individuals who employ them, are made into leaders. In this way, the Great System is United.
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We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it liveable.
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If you close your mind in judgements and traffic with desires, your heart will be troubled. If you keep your mind from judging and aren't led by the senses, your heart will find peace.
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Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath.
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The sage avoids extremity, excess, and extravagance.
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Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.
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The value of teaching without words and accomplishing without action is understood by few in the world.
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When people are unsettled, loyal ministers arise.
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Build up virtue, and you master all.
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The rigid tree will be felled.
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The wise man is one who knows what he does not know.
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The soft and weak can overcome the hard and strong.
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To know others is to have knowledge. To know yourself is to be enlightened.
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Those who know are wise. Those who know themselves are enlightened.
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Stillness is the ruler of haste.
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When people do not dread authorities, then a greater dread descends.
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Be truly whole, and all things will return to you.
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When the great Tao is forgotten, goodness and piety appear. When the body's intelligence declines, cleverness and knowledge step forth. When there is no peace in the family, filial piety begins. When the country falls into chaos, patriotism is born.
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Governing a large state is like boiling a small fish.
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What Heaven detests, who knows why? Even the sage considers it difficult.
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He who possess virtue in abundance may be compared to an infant.
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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.
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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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There is a thing inherent and natural which existed before heaven and earth. Motionless and fathomless, It stands alone and never changes; It pervades everywhere and never becomes exhausted. It may be regarded as the Mother of the Universe. I do not know its name. If I am forced to give It a name, I call it Tao, and I name it as supreme.