Lao Tzu Quotes
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What is firmly rooted cannot be pulled out.
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Weapons are instruments of fear; they are not a wise man's tools. He uses them only when he has no choice.
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There was something that finished chaos, born before Heaven and Earth.
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Abandon cleverness, discard profit, and thieves and robbers will disappear.
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The best soldier does not attack. The superior fighter succeeds without violence. The greatest conqueror wins without struggle. The most successful manager leads without dictating. This is intelligent non aggressiveness.
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Peace and quiet govern the world.
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Water benefits the ten thousand things and does not oppose them.
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Intelligent people know others. Enlightened people know themselves.
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Heaven's net is very vast. It is sparsely meshed, yet nothing slips through.
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If you want to shrink something, you must first allow it to expand. If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to flourish. If you want to take something, you must first allow it to be given. This is called the subtler perception of the way things are. The soft overcomes the hard. The slow overcomes the fast. Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results.
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Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not dominate it over them.
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The sage is sharp but does not cut, pointed but does not pierce, forthright but does not offend, bright but does not dazzle.
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The True Person governs by emptying the heart of desire and filling the belly with food, weakening ambitions and strengthening bones.
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The universe is deathless; Is deathless because, having no finite self, it stays infinite. A sound man by not advancing himself stays the further ahead of himself, By not confining himself to himself sustains himself outside himself: By never being an end in himself he endlessly becomes himself.
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Must one dread what others dread?
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If your virtue is especially radiant, it can be possible to open a pathway to the subtle realm and receive these celestial teachings directly from the immortals.
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When people do not dread authorities, then a greater dread descends.
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When people are unsettled, loyal ministers arise.
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The most fundamental seems fickle.
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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.