Lao Tzu Quotes
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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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Whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. What is soft is strong.
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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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When the student is ready the teacher will appear.
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The mature person perceives the fruitlessness of rigid, external methodologies.
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Stillness overcomes heat.
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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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Abandon cleverness, discard profit, and thieves and robbers will disappear.
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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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Not praising the deserving prevents envy.
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Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not dominate it over them.
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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.
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He who controls the past controls the future.
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He who possess virtue in abundance may be compared to an infant.
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To know others is to have knowledge. To know yourself is to be enlightened.
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Heaven's Way does not contend, yet it certainly triumphs. It does not speak, yet it certainly answers. It does not summon, yet things come by themselves. It seems to be at rest, yet it certainly has a plan.
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The Master keeps her mind always at one with the Tao; that is what gives her her radiance. The Tao is ungraspable. How can her mind be at one with it? Because she doesn't cling to ideas. The Tao is dark and unfathomable. How can it make her radiant? Because she lets it. Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not. How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see.
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The weak overcomes the strong. The soft overcomes the hard. Everybody in the world knows this, still nobody makes use of it.
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To delight in conquest is to delight in slaughter.
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Worlds and particles, bodies and beings, time and space: All are transient expressions of the Tao.
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Take [preventive] action before things happen. Establish order before disorder has begun.
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The Way is empty, yet inexhaustible, like an abyss!
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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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If princes and kings were not exalted they might be overthrown.