Lao Tzu Quotes
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In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.
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In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart.
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The sage never strives for greatness, and can therefore accomplish greatness.
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The highest virtue is not virtuous. Therefore it has virtue. The lowest virtue holds on to virtue. Therefore it has no virtue.
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Perfect kindness acts without thinking of kindness.
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People starve. The rulers consume too much with their taxes. That is why people starve.
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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.
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Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?
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Throw away profit and greed, and there won't be any thieves.
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The most eloquent seems to stutter.
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Heavy is the root of light.
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The supreme rulers are hardly known by their subjects. The lesser are loved and praised. The even lesser are feared. The least are despised.
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Because every portion of the body, mind, and spirit yearns for the integration of yin and yang, angelic intercourse is led by the spirit rather than the sexual organs. . . . Where ordinary intercourse unites sex organs with sex organs, angelic cultivation unites spirit with spirit, mind with mind, and every cell of one body with every cell of the other body.
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Take [preventive] action before things happen. Establish order before disorder has begun.
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Silence is a source of great strenght.
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The True Person governs by emptying the heart of desire and filling the belly with food, weakening ambitions and strengthening bones.
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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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Conquering others requires force. Conquering oneself requires strength.
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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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Chanting is no more holy than listening to the murmur of a stream, counting prayer beads no more sacred than simply breathing. . . . If you wish to attain oneness with the Tao, don't get caught up in spiritual superficialities.
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Good Government is not intrusive the people are hardly aware of it; the next best is felt yet loved; then comes that which is known and feared; the worst government is hated.
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Reputation should be neither sought nor avoided.
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The one who can dissolve her mind will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet.
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The sage is sharp but does not cut, pointed but does not pierce, forthright but does not offend, bright but does not dazzle.