Lao Tzu Quotes
-
Understand this if nothing else: spiritual freedom and oneness with the Tao are not randomly bestowed gifts, but the rewards of conscious self-transformation and self-evolution.
-
When the palace is magnificent, the fields are filled with weeds, and the granaries are empty.
-
The best leaders are those their people hardly know exist. The next best is a leader who is loved and praised. Next comes the one who is feared. The worst one is the leader that is despised ... The best leaders value their words, and use them sparingly. When they have accomplished their task, the people say, "Amazing! We did it, all by ourselves!
-
Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know.
-
Strong winds do not last all morning, hard rains do not last all day.
-
If you close your mind in judgements and traffic with desires, your heart will be troubled. If you keep your mind from judging and aren't led by the senses, your heart will find peace.
-
The supreme rulers are hardly known by their subjects. The lesser are loved and praised. The even lesser are feared. The least are despised.
-
Stillness overcomes heat.
-
When people do not dread authorities, then a greater dread descends.
-
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.
-
Why is the tao so valuable? Because it is everywhere, and everyone can use it. This is why those who seek will find, And those who reform will be forgiven; Why the good will be rewarded, And the thief who is cunning will escape.
-
The reality of the building does not consist in the roof and walls, but in the space within to be lived in.
-
The one who can dissolve her mind will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet.
-
The wise man is one who knows what he does not know.
-
Abandon cleverness, discard profit, and thieves and robbers will disappear.
-
Take [preventive] action before things happen. Establish order before disorder has begun.
-
Without looking through the window, you can see Heaven's Way.
-
Intelligent people know others. Enlightened people know themselves.
-
Seeing the small is called clarity.
-
There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born. It is serene. Empty. Solitary. Unchanging. Infinite. Eternally present. It is the mother of the universe. For lack of a better name, I call it the Tao. It flows through all things, inside and outside, and returns to the origin of all things. The Tao is great. The universe is great. Earth is great. Man is great. These are the four great powers. Man follows the earth. Earth follows the universe. The universe follows the Tao. The Tao follows only itself.
-
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.
-
Silence is a source of great strenght.
-
The river and the sea can be kings of a hundred valleys, because they lie below them.
-
In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart.