Lao Tzu Quotes
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He who, conscious of being strong, is content to be weak, he shall be the paragon of mankind. Being the paragon of mankind, Virtue will never desert him. He returns to the state of a little child.
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The world's big things only can be done by paying attention to their humble beginnings.
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Abandon knowledge and your worries are over.
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Rituals are the end of fidelity and honesty, and the beginning of confusion.
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From wonder into wonder existence opens.
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My teachings are easy to understand and easy to put into practice. Yet your intellect will never grasp them, and if you try to practice them, you'll fail. My teachings are older than the world. How can you grasp their meaning? If you want to know me, look inside your heart.
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How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?
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The sage does not act and therefore does not fail, does not seize and therefore does not lose.
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Don't imagine that you'll discover {the truth} by accumulating more knowledge. Knowledge creates doubt, and doubt makes you ravenous for more knowledge. You can't get full eating this way.
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Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.
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He who talks more is sooner exhausted.
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Go to the people. Learn from them. Live with them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. The best of leaders when the job is done, when the task is accomplished, the people will say we have done it ourselves.
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All things in the world come from being. And being comes from non-being.
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He who regards the world as he does the fortune of his own body can govern the world. He who loves the world as he does his own body can be entrusted with the world.
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People in their handlings of affairs often fail when they are about to succeed. If one remains as careful at the end as he was at the beginning, there will be no failure.
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He who knows much about others may be learned, but he who understands himself is more intelligent. He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
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If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.
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The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.
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The usefulness of a pot comes from its emptiness.
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If the Great Way perishes there will morality and duty. When cleverness and knowledge arise great lies will flourish. When relatives fall out with one another there will be filial duty and love. When states are in confusion there will be faithful servants.
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Accept disgrace willingly... Accept being unimportant... Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things. Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.
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The mystical techniques for achieving immortality are revealed only to those who have dissolved all ties to the gross worldly realm of duality, conflict, and dogma. As long as your shallow worldly ambitions exist, the door will not open.
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He who does not trust enough, Will not be trusted.
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Be the chief but never the lord.