Lao Tzu Quotes
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Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice. Therefore the Master remains serene in the midst of sorrow. Evil cannot enter his heart. Because he has given up helping, he is people's greatest help. True words seem paradoxical.
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Fine words are traded. Noble deeds gain respect. But people who are not good, why abandon them?
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Being is born of not being.
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To produce things and to rear them, To produce, but not to take possession of them, To act, but not to rely on one's own ability, To lead them, but not to master them - This is called profound and secret virtue.
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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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The difficult problems in life always start off being simple. Great affairs always start off being small.
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Creating without claiming, Doing without taking credit, Guiding without interfering, This is Primal Virtue.
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High and low rest on each other.
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Sometimes gain comes from losing, and sometimes loss comes from gaining.
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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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By the accident of fortune a man may rule the world for a time, but by virtue of love and kindness he may rule the world forever.
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Countless words count less than the silent balance between yin and yang
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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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There is no greater crime than desire.
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Water does not force its way.
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Allow your softer, more intuitive, and less dominating feminine qualities to rise to the fore, so that you're surrendering rather than dominating, receiving rather than broadcasting, loving rather than fighting.
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The most complete seems lacking. Yet in use it is not exhausted.
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Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
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Those who know it do not speak about it. Those who speak about it do not know it.
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To know how little one knows is to have genuine knowledge. Not to know how little one knows is to be deluded. Only those who know when they are deluded can free themselves from such delusion. The intelligent people are not deluded, because they know and accept their ignorance as ignorance, and thereby have genuine knowledge.
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Simplicity has no name is free of desires. Being free of desires it is tranquil. And the world will be at peace of it's own accord.
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For one gains by losing And loses by gaining.
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Not knowing of the eternal leads to unfortunate errors.
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Greed for enlightenment and immortality is no different than greed for material wealth. It is self-centered and dualistic, and thus an obstacle to true attainment. Therefore these states are never achieved by those who covet them; rather, they are the reward of the virtuous.