Lao Tzu Quotes
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Seeing the small is called clarity.
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Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.
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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.
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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.
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Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear.
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The Tao never acts with force, yet there is nothing that it can not do.
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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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What should be shrunken must first be stretched.
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The scholar gains every day; the man of Tao loses every day.
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He who controls the past controls the future.
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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 hard and stiff are death's companions. The soft and weak are life's companions.
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Those who take long steps cannot keep the pace.
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To delight in conquest is to delight in slaughter.
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All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. Humility gives it its power. If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them. The Master is above the people, and no one feels oppressed. She goes ahead of the people, and no one feels manipulated. The whole world is grateful to her. Because she competes with no one, no one can compete with her.
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The rigid tree will be felled.
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The most eloquent seems to stutter.
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. . . 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.
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Water benefits the ten thousand things and does not oppose them.
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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 the hares have all been caught, the hunting dogs are cooked.
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To manage your mind, know that there is nothing, and then relinquish all attachment to nothingness.
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Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not dominate it over them.
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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.