Lao Tzu Quotes
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Clay is used to make vases, but it is the emptiness they contain that makes them useful.
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If princes and kings could follow it (Tao), all things would by themselves abide, Heaven and Earth would unite and sweet dew would fall. People would by themselves find harmony, without being commanded.
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The most eloquent seems to stutter.
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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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Those who stand on their toes are not steady.
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The sage does not attempt anything very big, and thus achieves greatness.
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When the palace is magnificent, the fields are filled with weeds, and the granaries are empty.
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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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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 world is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by interfering.
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There is one appointed supreme executioner. Truly, trying to take the place of the supreme executioner is like trying to carve wood like a master carpenter. Of those who try to carve wood like a master carpenter, there are few who do not injure their hands.
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The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that. What is grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion.
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The rigid and big belong below. The soft and weak belong above.
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Take [preventive] action before things happen. Establish order before disorder has begun.
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Returning to the source is stillness. It is returning to one's fate. Returning to one's fate is eternal.
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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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People starve. The rulers consume too much with their taxes. That is why people starve.
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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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Reputation should be neither sought nor avoided.
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There is a big misunderstanding about the idea of naturalness. Most people who come to us believing in some freedom or naturalness, but their understanding is what we call [heretical naturalness] ... a kind of "let-alone policy" or sloppiness... For a plant or stone to be natural is no problem. But for us there is some problem, indeed a big problem. To be natural is something we must work on.
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In order to eliminate the negative influences, simply ignore them.
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That which offers no resistance, overcomes the hardest substances.
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The living are soft and yielding; the dead are rigid and stiff. Living plants are flexible and tender; the dead are brittle and dry.
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The greatest teacher has nothing to say. He simply gives himself in service, and never worries.