Lao Tzu Quotes
-
Man is ruled by Earth. Earth is ruled by Heaven. Heaven is ruled by the Way. The Way is ruled by itself.
-
The more laws that are written, the more criminals are produced.
-
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
-
Giving birth and nourishing, Bearing yet not possessing, Working yet not taking credit, Leading yet not dominating, This is the Primal Virtue.
-
The liberation cannot be reached but by means of the perception of the identity of the individual spirit with the universal spirit.
-
Distortion upon distortion: . . . the more one uses the mind, the more confused one becomes.
-
To be of few words is natural.
-
Excellent soldiers are not furious.
-
The Way to do is to be.
-
If you really want everything, then give up everything.
-
Tao is beyond words and beyond understanding. Words may be used to speak of it, but they cannot contain it. Tao existed before words and names, before heaven and earth, before the ten thousand things. It is the unlimited father and mother of all limited things. Therefore, to see beyond boundaries to the subtle heart of things, dispense with names, with concepts, with expectations and ambitions and differences. Tao and its many manifestations arise from the same source: subtle wonder within mysterious darkness. This is the beginning of all understanding.
-
Approach your own inner life with a loving quality that accepts who you are without trying to change who you are.
-
Not knowing of the eternal leads to unfortunate errors.
-
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.
-
A good athlete can enter a state of body-awareness in which the right stroke or the right movement happens by itself, effortlessly, without any interference of the conscious will. This is a paradigm for non-action: the purest and most effective form of action. The game plays the game; the poem writes the poem; we can't tell the dancer from the dance. It happens when we trust the intelligence of the universe in the same way that an athlete or a dancer trusts the superior intelligence of the body.
-
What man has more than enough and gives it to the world? Only the man of Tao.
-
Can you let go of words and ideas, attitudes and expectations? If so, then the Tao will loom into view.
-
Do not strive for the shine of jade, but clatter like stone.
-
A good door needs no lock, still it can't be opened.
-
The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. Try to make people moral, and you lay the groundwork for vice.
-
Countless words count less than the silent balance between yin and yang
-
Act without expectation.