Lao Tzu Quotes
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The truth often sounds paradoxical.
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Those who act will fail. Those who seize will lose.
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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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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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When there is no desire, all things are at peace.
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The most difficult in the world must be easy in its beginning.
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Marriage is three parts love and seven parts forgiveness of sins.
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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 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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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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Without going outside, you may know the whole world!
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The purest white seems stained.
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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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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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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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The way of heaven is to help and not harm.
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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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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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See simplicity in the complicated. Achieve greatness in little things.