Lao Tzu Quotes
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The truly wise are content to be last. They are, therefore, first. They are indifferent to themselves. They are, therefore self-confident.
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Weapons are not proper instruments for gentle people; they use them only when they have no other choice. Peace and quiet are what they value. They do not glory in victory.
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Remember: if you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear.
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Without law or compulsion, men would dwell in harmony.
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Dualistic thinking is a sickness.
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Pounding an edge to sharpness will not make it last.
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No weapon is sharper than will.
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There is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things.
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All things in nature work silently. They come into being and possess nothing. They fulfill their function and make no claim. All things alike do their work, and then we see them subside. When they have reached their bloom, each returns to its origin. . . . This reversion is an eternal law. To know that law is wisdom.
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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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Success is as dangerous as failure. Hope is as hollow as fear. What does it mean that success is a dangerous as failure? Whether you go up the ladder or down it, you position is shaky. When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance. What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear? Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don't see the self as self, what do we have to fear? See the world as your self. Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as your self; then you can care for all things.
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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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The sage never strives for the great, and thereby the great is achieved.
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Great talents ripen late; the highest notes are hard to hear.
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. . . learn to value what is important today in the subtle realm rather than what appears desirable tomorrow in the worldly realm.
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Can you dissolve your ego? Can you abandon the idea of self and other? Can you relinquish the notions of male and female, short and long, life and death? Can you let go of all these dualities and embrace the Tao without skepticism or panic? If so, you can reach the heart of the Integral Oneness.
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He who is attached to things will suffer much.
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Battles are followed by years of famine.
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Do not fear the aging of the body for it is the body's way of seeking the root.
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The best way to manage anything is by making use of its own nature.
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Failure is an opportunity. If you blame someone else, there is no end to the blame. Therefore the Master fulfills her own obligations and corrects her own mistakes. She does what she needs to do and demands nothing of others.
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Peace and quiet are preferred. Victory should not be praised.
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Who has excess and supplies the world? Only the one who follows the Way.
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Those who praise victory relish manslaughter. Those who relish manslaughter cannot reach their goals in the world.