Lao Tzu Quotes
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A sage is skilled at helping people without excluding anyone.
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Those who show off do not shine.
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Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery.
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Cut out doors and windows for the house. The holes make it useful.
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The wise leader settles for good work and then lets others have the floor.
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Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river.
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If people live in constant fear of death, and if breaking the law is punished by death, then who would dare?
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The leader's main job is to make themselves obsolete.
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When people see some things as good, other things become bad.
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Therefore the Sage embraces Unity, and is a model for all under Heaven. He is free from self-display, therefore he shines forth; from self-assertion, therefore he is distinguished; from self-glorification, therefore he has merit; from self-exaltation, therefore he rises superior to all. Inasmuch as he does not strive, there is no one in the world who can strive with him.
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Do not look only at yourself, and you will see much. Do not justify yourself, and you will be distinguished. Do not brag, and you will have merit. Do not be prideful, and your work will endure.
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The one who rules like the mother lasts long.
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Who has excess and supplies the world? Only the one who follows the Way.
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I will be fond of keeping still, and the people will of themselves become correct.
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Treat the large as the small and the few as the many.
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The Great Tao flows everywhere, to the left and to the right, all things depend on it to exist, and it does not abandon them. To its accomplishments it lays no claims. It loves and nourished all things, but does not lord it over them.
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Solve it before it happens. Order it before chaos emerges.
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The sage never strives for the great, and thereby the great is achieved.
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I alone am different from the others, because I am nourished by the great mother.
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Most of the world's religions serve only to strengthen attachments to false concepts such as self and other, life and death, heaven and earth, and so on. Those who become entangled in these false ideas are prevented from perceiving the Integral Oneness.
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The first practice is the practice of undiscriminating virtue: take care of those who are deserving; also, and equally, take care of those who are not. When you extend your virtue in all directions without discriminating, you feet are firmly planted on the path that returns to the Tao.
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Kindness in thought leads to wisdom. Kindness in speech leads to eloquence. Kindness in action leads to love.
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The sage embraces the one, and is an example to the world.
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There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.