Lao Tzu Quotes
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When taxes are too high, people go hungry.
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The sage wears coarse clothes, concealing jade.
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When wisdom and knowledge appear, great pretense arises.
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The True Person avoids extremes, self-indulgence, and extravagance.
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If you can let go of (the Tao) with your mind and surround it with your heart, it will live inside you forever.
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In order to contract, It is necessary first to expand. In order to weaken, It is necessary first to strengthen. In order to destroy, It is first necessary to promote. In order to grasp, It is necessary first to give. This is called subtle light. The weak and the tender overcome the hard and the strong.
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Meandering leads to perfection.
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The leader's main job is to make themselves obsolete.
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Solve it before it happens. Order it before chaos emerges.
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How do I become still? By flowing with the stream.
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To manage your mind, know that there is nothing, and then relinquish all attachment to nothingness.
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The Tao doesn't take sides; it gives birth to both good and evil. The Master doesn't take sides; she welcomes both saints and sinners. The Tao is like a bellows: it is empty yet infinitely capable. The more you use it, the more it produces; the more you talk of it, the less you understand. Hold on to the center.
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The more laws and orders are multiplied, the more theft and violence increase.
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The sage embraces the one, and is an example to the world.
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If the majority doesn't laugh at you, beware that you must be saying something wrong. When the majority thinks you are a fool, only then is there some possibility of you being a wise man.
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Those who have hardened, have a covenant with Death. Those who remain gentle are conjoined with Life.
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The wise leader settles for good work and then lets others have the floor.
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A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants.
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Nothing is weaker than water, Yet for overcoming what is hard and strong, Nothing surpasses it.
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The leader is a teacher who succeeds without taking credit. And, because credit is not taken, credit is received.
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He that humbles himself shall be preserved entire. He that bends shall be made straight. He that is empty shall be filled. He that is worn out shall be renewed. He who has little shall succeed. He who has much shall go astray.
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The female always surpasses the male with stillness. In her stillness she is yielding.
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Stay at the center and let all things take their course.
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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.