Lao Tzu Quotes
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Great, it passes on (in constant flow).
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He does not seek glory - yet people respect him.
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Approach your own inner life with a loving quality that accepts who you are without trying to change who you are.
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Much knowledge will corrupt the heart,/When partly understood,/And so the people grow too smart,/But neither wise nor good.
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The great Way is easy, yet people prefer the side paths. Be aware when things are out of balance. Stay centered within the Tao. When rich speculators prosper While farmers lose their land; when government officials spend money on weapons instead of cures; when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible while the poor have nowhere to turn- all this is robbery and chaos. It is not in keeping with the Tao.
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Weapons are not proper instruments for gentle people; they use them only when they have no other choice. Peace and quiet are what they value. They do not glory in victory.
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There is no greater mistake than to make light of an enemy By making light of an enemy many a kingdom has been lost.
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The Tao is great. The universe is great. Earth is great. Man is great. These are the four great powers. Man follows the earth. Earth follows the universe. The universe follows the Tao. The Tao follows only itself.
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Your own positive future begins in this moment. All you have is right now. Every goal is possible from here.
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Fame of self: Which matters more? Self or wealth: Which is more precious? Gain or loss: Which is more painful?
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Lightly given promises must meet with little trust.
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By compassion one can be brave.
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He who hoards much loses much.
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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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The tree which needs two arms to span its girth sprang from the tiniest shoot. Yon tower, nine stories high, rose from a little mound of earth. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
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Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know.
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If you attach yourself to gross energies - loving this person, hating that clan, rejecting one experience or habitually indulging in another - then you will lead a series of heavy, attached lives. This can go on for a very long and tedious time.
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If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.
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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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Distortion upon distortion: . . . the more one uses the mind, the more confused one becomes.
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Do not imagine that an integral being has the ambition of enlightening the unaware or raising worldly people to the divine realm. To her, there is no self and other, and hence no one to be raised; no heaven and hell, and hence no destination.
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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.
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Do nondoing, strive for non-stiving, savor the flavourless, make much of little, repay enmity with virture; plan for difficulty when it is still easy, do the great while it is still small.
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Let the country be small, and the inhabitants few.