Lao Tzu Quotes
-
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.
-
The sage knows without traveling, perceives without looking, completes without acting.
-
Harmony is called the eternal. Knowing the eternal is called clarity.
-
Moderation means prevention. Prevention means achieving much virtue.
-
They can see their neighbors. Roosters and dogs can be heard from there. Still, they will age and die without visiting one another.
-
When you let go of what you are, you become what you might be.
-
As soon as you have made a thought, laugh at it.
-
Though (the Tao) is uncreated itself, it creates all things. Because it has no substance, it can enter into where there is no space. Exercising by returning to itself, winning victories by remaining gentle and yielding, it is softer than anything, and therefore overcomes everything hard.
-
He does not feel pity for himself - thus he can successfully develop.
-
If you are untrustworthy, people will not trust you.
-
The truest sayings are paradoxical.
-
The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to Two. Two gives birth to Three. Three gives birth to all things. All things have their backs to the female and stand facing the male. When male and female combine, all things achieve harmony. Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.
-
In the end, The treasure of life is missed by those who hold on and gained by those who let go.
-
A good manager is best when people barely know that he exists. Not so good when people obey and acclaim him. Worse when they despise him.
-
A man is born gentle and weak. At death he is hard and stiff.
-
Not valuing wealth prevents theft.
-
All things issue from it; all things return to it. To find the origin, trace back the manifestations. When you recognize the children and find the mother, you will be free of sorrow. 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. Seeing into darkness is clarity. Knowing how to yield is strength. Use your own light and return to the source of light. This is called practicing eternity.
-
The Way is hidden and nameless. Still only the Way nourishes and completes.
-
Those who are self-righteous are not prominent.
-
The sturdiest virtue seems fragile.
-
Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those who are skilled (in the Tao) do not dispute (about it); the disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know (the Tao) are not extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it.
-
The Way is the source of all things, good people's treasure and bad people's refuge.
-
When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, There arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, There arises the recognition of evil.
-
He who loves does not dispute: He who disputes does not love.