Lao Tzu Quotes
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Do nondoing, strive for non-stiving, savor the flavourless, make much of little, repay enmity with virture; plan for difficulty when it is still easy, do the great while it is still small.
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The highest tone is hard to hear.
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Intellectual knowledge exists in and of the brain. Because the brain is part of the body, which must one day expire, this collection of facts, however large and impressive, will expire as well. {But spiritual insight transcends death.}
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Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.
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Quiet your mind and stop judging and resisting and manipulating the natural way.
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Even the longest journey must begin where you stand.
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Those who are one with deprivation are deprived of deprivation.
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When the worst student hears about the Way, he laughs out loud. If he did not laugh, it would be unworthy of being the Way.
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I have no desire to desire, and people become like the uncarved wood by themselves.
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Use your own light and return to the source of light. This is called practicing eternity.
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The unyielding army will not win.
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The sage regards things as difficult, and thereby avoids difficulty.
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There is no greater disaster than discontent.
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Without going outside, you may know the whole world, without looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven. The farther you go, the less you know. Thus the sage knows without traveling; he sees without looking; he works without doing.
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If I have just an ounce of sense, I follow the great Way, and fear only to stray from it.
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The light of the Way seems dim.
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Seek not happiness too greedily and be not fearful of happiness.
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Who is unhappy with little, won't be with much; who doesn't appreciate the small won't be able to take care of the large; who doesn't have enough with enough is at the margin or virtue, for the physical body lives from one day to another and if it gets what it really needs, there will be time for meditation, as long as if we try to give it everything it desires, endless will be the task.
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The longer you travel, the less you know.
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For knowledge, add something every day. For wisdom....subtract.
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All men desire to free themselves solely from death; they do not know how to free themselves from life.
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As it acts in the world, the Tao is like the bending of a bow. The top is bent downward; the bottom is bent up. It adjusts excess and deficiency so that there is perfect balance.
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Dualistic thinking is a sickness.
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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.