Lao Tzu Quotes
-
The purest white seems stained.
-
A foolish man is always doing, Yet much remains to be done.
-
The wise are not learned, the learned are not wise.
-
Everything in the universe is created from something, which in turn is created from nothing.
-
Throw away holiness and wisdom, and people will be a hundred times happier. Throw away morality and justice, and people will do the right thing. Throw away industry and profit, and there won't be any thieves. If these three aren't enough, just stay at the center of the circle and let all things take their course.
-
Only those who leisurely approach that which the masses are busy about can be busy about that which the masses take leisurely.
-
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.
-
Intellectual knowledge exists in and of the brain. Because the brain is part of the body, which must one day expire, this collection of facts, however large and impressive, will expire as well. {But spiritual insight transcends death.}
-
He who has achieved this state Is unconcerned with friends and enemies, With good and harm, with honor and disgrace. This therefore is the highest state of man.
-
Before healing others, heal yourself.
-
It is better not to make merit a matter of reward Lest people conspire and contend.
-
The sage is one with the world, and lives in harmony with it.
-
The good man is the teacher of the bad, And the bad is the material from which the good may learn. He who does not value the teacher, Or greatly care for the material, Is greatly deluded although he may be learned. Such is the essential mystery.
-
Behave simply and hold on to purity.
-
Gentleness brings victory to him who attacks, and safety to him who defends. Those whom Heaven would save, it fences round with gentleness.
-
It is wealth to be content.
-
A tree that can fill the span of a man's arms grows from a downy tip; A terrace nine stories high rises from level earth; A journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath one's feet.
-
Being a model to the world, eternal virtue will never falter in you, and you return to the boundless.
-
By following this simple path, you become extraordinary, unfathomable, a being of profound cosmic subtlety. You outlive time and space by realizing the subtle truth of the universe.
-
We go from birth to death. Three out of ten follow life. Three out of ten follow death. People who rush from birth to death are also three out of ten. Why is that so? Because they want to make too much of life.
-
The way of heaven is to help and not harm.
-
When leading people and serving Heaven, nothing exceeds moderation.
-
Look, and it can't be seen. Listen, and it can't be heard. Reach, and it can't be grasped. Above, it isn't bright. Below, it isn't dark. Seamless, unnamable, it returns to the realm of nothing. Form that includes all forms, image without an image, subtle, beyond all conception. Approach it and there is no beginning; follow it and there is no end. You can't know it, but you can be it, at ease in your own life. Just realize where you come from: this is the essence of wisdom.
-
If the sage wants to stand above people, he must speak to them from below. If he wants to lead people, he must follow them from behind.