Lao Tzu Quotes
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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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Become totally empty Quiet the restlessness of the mind Only then will you witness everything unfolding from emptiness
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The truth often sounds paradoxical.
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Marriage is three parts love and seven parts forgiveness of sins.
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The most difficult in the world must be easy in its beginning.
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When there is no desire, all things are at peace.
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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.
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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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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.
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The wise man, after learning something new, is afraid to learn anything more until he has put his first lesson into practice.
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The Way of Tao is this: It strives not, but conquers; It speaks not, but all is made clear; It summons not, but its house is crowded; It contrives not, but the design is perfect.
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Without going outside, you may know the whole world!
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The purest white seems stained.
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The things that have acquired unity are these: Heaven by unity has become clear; Earth by unity has become steady; The Spirit by unity has become spiritual; The Valley by unity has become full; All things by unity have come into existence.
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There is a time to go ahead and a time to stay behind. There is a time to breathe easy and time to breathe hard. There is a time to be vigorous and a time to be gentle. There is a time to gather and a time to release. Can you see things as they are And let them be all on their own?
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Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.
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See simplicity in the complicated. Achieve greatness in little things.
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The way of heaven is to help and not harm.
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Virtue in its grandest aspect is neither more nor less than following reason.
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Lessen selfishness and restrain desires.
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Those who seek knowledge, collect something every day. Those who seek the Way, let go of something every day.
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Only those who leisurely approach that which the masses are busy about can be busy about that which the masses take leisurely.
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Complete your task. Seek no reward. Make no claims. Without faltering fully choose to do what you must do.
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Praise of power leads to weakness; Love of things leads to loss; The wise one leads by filling people's hearts; He destroys illusion and disturbs those who believe they are wise; He does nothing yet everything happens.