Lao Tzu Quotes
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Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.
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What people loathe the most is to be orphaned, desolate, unworthy. But this is what princes and kings call themselves.
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Some help others in order to receive blessings and admiration. This is simply meaningless. Some cultivate themselves in part to serve others, in part to serve their own pride. They will understand, at best, half of the truth. But those who improve themselves for the sake of the world - to these, the whole truth of the universe will be revealed.
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The progress of the Way seems retreating.
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As soon as rules were made, names were given. There are already many names. One must know when it is enough.
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Remember: if you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear.
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Without the tao, Kindness and compassion are replaced by law and justice; Faith and trust are supplanted by ritual and ceremony.
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Those who boast are not respected.
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When the sage stands above people, they are not oppressed. When he leads people, they are not obstructed. The world will exalt him and not grow tired of him.
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Throw away sacredness and wisdom and people will be one hundred times happier.
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Keep behind, and you shall be put in front; keep out, and you shall be kept in.
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Who can enjoy enlightenment and remain indifferent to suffering in the world? This is not in keeping with the Way. Only those who increase their service along with their understanding can be called men and women of Tao.
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As long as we have hope, we have direction, the energy to move, and the map to move by. We have a hundred alternatives, a thousand paths and an infinity of dreams. Hopeful, we are halfway to where we want to go; hopeless, we are lost forever.
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The Way of Heaven does not complete, and yet it skillfully achieves victory. It does not speak, and yet it skillfully responds to things. It comes to you without your invitation.
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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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Those who are quiet value the words. When their task is completed, people will say: We did it ourselves.
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The farther you go, the less you know.
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Let people return to making knots on ropes, instead of writing.
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The reason why rivers and seas are able to be lords over a hundred mountain streams, is that they know how to keep below them. That is why they are able to reign over all the mountain streams.
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The longer you travel, the less you know.
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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.
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Without stepping out the door, you can know the world.
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Free from desire, you realize the mystery, caught in the desire, you see only the manifestations.
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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.