Lao Tzu Quotes
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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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Weapons are ominous tools. They are not the noble ruler's tools. He only uses them when he can't avoid it.
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A good counter needs no calculator.
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The heavy is the root of the light. The tranquil is the ruler of the hasty.
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...The sage, traveling all day, Does not lose sight of his baggage. Though there are beautiful things to be seen, He remains unattached and calm.
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To be brave without compassion, generous without moderation, and rule without refraining from being first in the world, are certain deaths.
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One's own self or material goods, which has more worth? Loss (of self) or possession (of goods), which is the greater evil? He who loves most, spends most, He who hoards much loses much.
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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.
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When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace, they can be kept from separating.
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Other people are occupied, I alone am unwilling, like the outcast.
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Find a teacher who is an integral being, a beacon who extends his light and virtue with equal ease to those who appreciate him and those who don't. Shape yourself in his mold, bathe in his nourishing radiance, and reflect it out to the rest of the world.
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Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course? Can you step back from you own mind and thus understand all things? Giving birth and nourishing, having without possessing, acting with no expectations, leading and not trying to control: this is the supreme virtue.
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Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.
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The highest benevolence acts without purpose.
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Too much success is not an advantage. Do not tinkle like jade Or clatter like stone chimes.
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Can you gather your vital breath and yet be tender like a newborn baby?
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Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death. The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.
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The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings. He knows that he is going to die, and her has nothing left to hold on to: no illusions in his mind, no resistances in his body. He doesn't think about his actions; they flow from the core of his being. He holds nothing back from life; therefore he is ready for death, as a man is ready for sleep after a good day's work.
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To the good I would be good; to the not-good I would also be good, in order to make them good.
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The most able seems clumsy.
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Prepare while it's easy.
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(The Tao) is always present and always available. . . . If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere, even in the most ordinary things.
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I do not interfere, and people become rich by themselves.
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He who overcomes others has force; he who overcomes himself is strong.