Lao Tzu Quotes
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Success is as dangerous as failure. Hope is as hollow as fear. What does it mean that success is a dangerous as failure? Whether you go up the ladder or down it, you position is shaky. When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance. What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear? Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don't see the self as self, what do we have to fear? See the world as your self. Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as your self; then you can care for all things.
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So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind; Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily; Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness; Sometimes one is up and sometimes down. Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency.
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Be content with an ordinary life.
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Truly, only acting without thought of one's life is superior to valuing one's life.
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A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants. A good scientist has freed himself of concepts and keeps his mind open to what is.
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He who knows how to be aggressive, and yet remains patient, becomes a receptacle for all of Nature's lessons.
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The purpose of life is the investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the heavens.
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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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If I have just an ounce of sense, I follow the great Way, and fear only to stray from it.
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Practice not-doing and everything will fall into place.
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People aren't against you; they are for themselves. The most dangerous risk of all - the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later. He who conquers others is strong, he who conquers himself is mighty.
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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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When bitter enemies make peace, surely some bitterness remains.
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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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Just as the value of a house lies in its location, The value of a mind lies in its depth, The value of giving lies in the presence of a generous spirit, The value of words lies in their reliability.
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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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Praise leads to weakness. Getting it causes fear, losing it causes fear.
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What man has more than enough and gives it to the world? Only the man of Tao.
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Things are not worth attending to, yet they have to be attended to.
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The valley spirit never dies. It is called the mystical female.
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The small is easy to scatter.
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All action begins in rest... This is the ultimate truth.
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True perfection seems imperfect, yet it is perfectly itself. True fullness seems empty, yet it is fully present. True straightness seems crooked. True wisdom seems foolish. True art seems artless. The Master allows things to happen. She shapes events as they come. She steps out of the way and lets the Tao speak for itself.
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Fine words are traded. Noble deeds gain respect. But people who are not good, why abandon them?