Lao Tzu Quotes
-
Keep your mouth shut, and close up the doors of sight and sound, and as long as you live you will have no vexation. But open your mouth, or become inquisitive, and you will be in trouble all your life long.
-
To bear the country's disgrace is to rule the shrines of soil and grain. To bear the country's misfortunes is to be the king of the world.
-
Gain or loss, what is worse?
-
The grandest virtue seems deficient.
-
Knowing the future is the flower of the Way, and the beginning of folly.
-
Those who know when to halt are unharmed.
-
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.
-
There is no illusion great than fear.
-
The superior student listens to the Way and follows it closely. The average student listens to the Way and follows some and some not. The lesser student listens to the Way and laughs out loud. If there were no laughter it would not be the Way.
-
No thought, no action, no movement, total stillness: only thus can one manifest the true nature and law of things from within and unconsciously, and at last become one with heaven and earth.
-
Lightly given promises must meet with little trust.
-
The group will not prosper if the leader grabs the lion's share of the credit for the good work that has been done.
-
Words have divided man from woman, one from another, this from that, until only sages know how to put things together. Without words, without even understanding, lovers find each other. The moment of finding is always a surprise, like meeting an old friend never before known.
-
From What-is all the world of things was born But What-is sprang in turn from What-is-not.
-
Keep behind, and you shall be put in front; keep out, and you shall be kept in.
-
Other people have more than they need, I alone seem wanting.
-
Fame of self: Which matters more? Self or wealth: Which is more precious? Gain or loss: Which is more painful?
-
The small is easy to scatter.
-
If you overesteem great men, people become powerless. If you overvalue possessions, people begin to steal. The Master leads by emptying people's minds and filling their cores, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve. He helps people lose everything they know, everything they desire, and creates confusion in those who think that they know. Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.
-
If you want everything, you first have to give everything up.