Lao Tzu Quotes
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What is firmly rooted cannot be pulled out.
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The sage governs by emptying senses and filling bellies.
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The eternal void is filled with infinite possibilities.
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That which offers no resistance, overcomes the hardest substances.
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What should be shrunken must first be stretched.
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Worlds and particles, bodies and beings, time and space: All are transient expressions of the Tao.
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The Tao never acts with force, yet there is nothing that it can not do.
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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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Accomplish but do not boast, accomplish without show, accomplish without arrogance, accomplish without grabbing, accomplish without forcing.
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The truly great man dwells on what is real and not what is on the surface.
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The most fundamental seems fickle.
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The wise trusts not only to his physical eyes - thus he can see clearly.
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Be merciful, moderate, and modest.
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Make your heart like a lake, with calm, still surface, and great depths of kindness.
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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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Never take over the world to tamper with it. Those who want to tamper with it are not fit to take over the world.
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Does one scent appeal more than another? Do you prefer this flavor, or that feeling? Is your practice sacred and your work profane? Then your mind is separated: from itself, from oneness, from the Tao.
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Some lose yet gain, others gain and yet lose.
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Those who know don't talk. Those who talk don't know. Close your mouth, block off your senses, blunt your sharpness, untie your knots, soften your glare, settle your dust. This is the primal identity. Be like the Tao. It can't be approached or withdrawn from, benefited or harmed, honored or brought into disgrace. It gives itself up continually. That is why it endures.
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The great image lacks shape.
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The new life created by the final integration is self-aware yet without ego, capable of inhabiting a body yet not attached to it, and guided by wisdom rather than emotion. Whole and virtuous, it can never die.
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The greatest teacher has nothing to say. He simply gives himself in service, and never worries.
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The master does his job and then stops. He understands that the universe is forever out of control, and that trying to dominate events goes against the current of the Tao.
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In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple.