Lao Tzu Quotes
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Other people are occupied, I alone am unwilling, like the outcast.
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Seeing the small is called Clarity. Keeping flexible is called Strength. Using the shining Radiance, You enter the Light, Where no harm can come to you. This is called Enlightenment.
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Tao invariably takes no action, and yet there is nothing left undone.
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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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Silence is a source of great strenght.
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Reputation should be neither sought nor avoided.
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Why separate your spiritual life and your practical life? To an integral being, there is no such distinction.
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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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Those who know when it is enough will not perish.
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Yielding is the way of the Tao.
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Empty your mind of all thoughts. Let your heart be at peace. Watch the turmoil of beings, but contemplate their return. Each separate being in the universe returns to the common source. Returning to the source is serenity. If you don't realize the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow. When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king. Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.
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In the end, The treasure of life is missed by those who hold on and gained by those who let go.
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Harmony is called the eternal. Knowing the eternal is called clarity.
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Knowing constancy, the mind is open. With an open mind, you will be openhearted. Being openhearted you will act royally. Being royal, you will attain the divine. Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao. Being at one with the Tao is eternal. Though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.
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Attain utmost emptiness. Abide in steadfast stillness.
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Everything will settle in its own place automatically.
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Every being in the universe is an expression of the Tao. It springs into existence, unconscious, perfect, free, takes on a physical body, lets circumstances complete it. That is why every being spontaneously honors the Tao. The Tao gives birth to all beings, nourishes them, maintains them, cares for them, comforts them, protects them, takes them back to itself, creating without possessing, acting without expecting, guiding without interfering. That is why love of the Tao is in the very nature of things.
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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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Water benefits the ten thousand things and does not oppose them.
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Throw away profit and greed, and there won't be any thieves.
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A tree trunk the size of a man grows from a blade as thin as a hair. A tower nine stories high is built from a small heap of earth.
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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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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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You should rule a great country As you would fry a small fish- With the least turning.