Lao Tzu Quotes
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Let people return to making knots on ropes, instead of writing.
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It is wisdom to know others. It is enlightenment to know oneself.
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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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Knowing the bright, but clinging to the dark, you become a model to the world.
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...the more you talk of it, the less you understand.
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My words are easy to understand and easy to perform, Yet no man under heaven knows them or practices them.
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He who is attached to things will suffer much.
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Hold on to the center and make up your mind to rejoice in this paradise called life.
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A good traveler leaves no tracks. Good speech lacks fault-finding.
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Make the small big and the few many.
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Arms are instruments of ill omen.... When one is compelled to use them, it is best to do so without relish. There is no glory in victory, and to glorify it despite this is to exult in the killing of men.... When great numbers of people are killed, one should weep over them with sorrow. When victorious in war, one should observe mourning rites.
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. . . integral wisdom involves a direct participation in every moment: the observer and the observed are dissolved in the light of pure awareness, and no mental concepts or attitudes are present to dim that light.
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Other people have more than they need, I alone seem wanting.
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Be as the still mountain; Move like the great river.
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The group will not prosper if the leader grabs the lion's share of the credit for the good work that has been done.
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Take time to listen to what is said without words, to obey the law too subtle to be written, to worship the unnameable and to embrace the unformed.
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In work, do what you enjoy.
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Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time' is to say 'I don't want to.'
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Loving, hating, having expectations: all these are attachments. Attachment prevents the growth of one's true being.
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If you worry more for others' beliefs, then you will be their slave.
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All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. Humility gives it its power.
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Gently eliminating all obstacles to his own understanding, he constantly maintains his unconditional sincerity. His humility, perseverance, and adaptability evoke the response of the universe and fill him with divine light.
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The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of all things.
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If you can let go of (the Tao) with your mind and surround it with your heart, it will live inside you forever.