Lao Tzu Quotes
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If you never assume importance, you never lose it.
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The sage avoids extremity, excess, and extravagance.
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Covetousness is the greatest misfortune. One who does not know what is enough will never have enough.
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The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors. It is through this that they suffer famine.
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Moderation means prevention. Prevention means achieving much virtue.
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The greatest revelation is stillness.
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Those who stand on their toes are not steady.
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Be truly whole, and all things will return to you.
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Not praising the deserving prevents envy.
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In stillness the muddied water returns to clarity.
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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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The sage honors his part of the settlement, but does not exact his due from others.
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Stillness is the ruler of haste.
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To delight in conquest is to delight in slaughter.
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The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.
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To conquer others is to have power, to conquer yourself is to know the way.
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A multitude of words is tiresome, unlike remaining centered.
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I have three treasures that I cherish. The first is compassion. The second is moderation. The third is not claiming to be first in the world.
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Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river.
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What Heaven detests, who knows why? Even the sage considers it difficult.
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An integral being knows without going, sees without looking, and accomplishes without doing.
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The rigid and big belong below. The soft and weak belong above.
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The fourth (of the four cardinal virtues) is supportiveness: this manifests as service to others without expectation of reward. (Paraphrased: Such service is not a mere conforming to some external rule of behavior, but instead a manifestation of your original nature).
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We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it liveable.