Lao Tzu Quotes
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Do you imagine the universe is agitated? Go into the desert at night and look out at the stars. This practice should answer the question..... The master settles her mind as the universe settles the stars in the sky. By connecting her mind with the subtle origin, she calms it. Once calmed, it naturally expands, and ultimately her mind becomes as vast and immeasurable as the night sky.
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Those who have the courage to dare will perish. Those who have the courage not to dare will live.
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Pain and happiness are simply conditions of the ego. Forget the ego.
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. . . the mind is desperate to fix the river {of events} in place: Possessed by ideas of the past, preoccupied with images of the future, it overlooks the plain truth of the moment.
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Meet the big while it is small.
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Because he is a living divinity, when he acts, the universe acts.
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One who believes in himself has no need to convince others.
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Being a model to the world, eternal virtue will never falter in you, and you return to the boundless.
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Knowledge studies others, wisdom is self known.
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What's the difference between beautiful and ugly?
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The Tao is infinite, eternal. Why is it eternal? It was never born; thus it can never die. Why is it infinite? It has no desires for itself; thus it is present for all beings. The Master stays behind; that is why she is ahead. She is detached from all things; that is why she is one with them. Because she has let go of herself, she is perfectly fulfilled.
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Good leaders reach solutions, and then stop. They do not dare to rely on force.
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The most difficult in the world must be easy in its beginning.
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My words are very easy to understand and very easy to practice; but there is no one in the world who is able to understand and practice them.
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Supreme good is like water. Water greatly benefits all things, without conflict. It flows through places that people loathe. Thereby it is close to the Way.
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What makes a kingdom great is its being like a down-flowing river,--the central point towards which all the smaller streams under Heaven converge; or like the female throughout the world, who by quiescence always overcomes the male. And quiescence is a form of humility.
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The liberation cannot be reached but by means of the perception of the identity of the individual spirit with the universal spirit.
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True words seem false.
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Can you let go of words and ideas, attitudes and expectations? If so, then the Tao will loom into view.
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Everything in the universe is created from something, which in turn is created from nothing.
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Marriage is three parts love and seven parts forgiveness of sins.
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First and last follow each other.
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The Way is ever without action, yet nothing is left undone.
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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.