Lao Tzu Quotes
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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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Leadership is your ability to hide your panic from others.
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The wise person dines on something more subtle: He eats the understanding that the named was born from the unnamed, that all being flows from non-being, that the describable world emanates from an indescribable source.
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No weapon is sharper than will.
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Only fools seek power, and the greatest fools seek it through force.
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Remember: if you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear.
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The best of all teachers is the one who helps people so that eventually they don't need him.
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In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart. In dealing with others, be gentle and kind. In speech, be true. In ruling, be just. In daily life, be competent. In action, be aware of the time and the season.
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The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.
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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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The sage knows without traveling, perceives without looking, completes without acting.
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That the soft overcomes the hard, and the yielding overcomes the resistant, is a fact known by all, but practiced by few.
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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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Because he (the Sage) opposes no one, no one in the world can oppose him.
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The Master's power is like this. He lets all things come and go effortlessly, without desire. He never expects results; thus he is never disappointed. He is never disappointed; thus his spirit never grows old.
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He who is attached to things will suffer much.
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Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
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Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity.
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Not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease. First realize that you are sick; then you can move toward health.
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Pounding an edge to sharpness will not make it last.
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Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself.
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Abandon wisdom, discard knowledge, and people will benefit a hundredfold.
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With virtue and quietness one may conquer the world.
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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.