Lao Tzu Quotes
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What is a good man but a bad man's teacher? What is a bad man but a good man's job? If you do not remember this, You will get lost, No matter how intelligent you are. It is the great secret.
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Abandon fancy theologies and imaginary ideas and do some ordinary daily work... {Engage in this work with} unswerving kindness and unending patience.
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The sage wears coarse clothes, concealing jade.
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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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I alone am different from the others, because I am nourished by the great mother.
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Without going out-of-doors, one can know all he needs to know. Without even looking out of his window, one can grasp the nature of everything. Without going beyond his own nature, one can achieve ultimate wisdom. Therefore, the intelligent man knows all he needs to know without going away, And sees all he needs to see without looking elsewhere, And does all he needs to do wihout undue exertion.
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If you have really attained wholeness, everything will flock to you.
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You cannot know the body by studying the finger, and you cannot understand the universe by learning one science.
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When you are one with loss, the loss is experienced willingly.
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Deal with difficult tasks while they are easy. Act on large issues while they are small.
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A man's excellence is like that of water; It benefits all things without striving; It takes to the low places shunned by men. Water is akin to Tao. . . . In all the earth nothing weaker than water, Yet in attacking the hard, nothing superior, Nothing so certain in wearing down strength: There is no way to resist it. Note then: The weak conquer the strong, The yielding outlast the aggressors.
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How do I become still? By flowing with the stream.
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Don't think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness.
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Because he (the Sage) opposes no one, no one in the world can oppose him.
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Those who show off do not shine.
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The sage embraces the one, and is an example to the world.
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Those who praise victory relish manslaughter. Those who relish manslaughter cannot reach their goals in the world.
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When you find the way/ others will find you./ Passing by on the road/ they will be drawn to your door./ The way that cannot be heard/ will be echoed in your voice./ The way that cannot be seen/ will be reflected in your eyes.
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Stay at the center and let all things take their course.
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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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The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.
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It is wisdom to know others. It is enlightenment to know oneself.
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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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What is well rooted cannot be pulled up. What is firmly grasped will not slip loose. It will be honoured from generation to generation.