Lao Tzu Quotes
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Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
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Clay is fashioned into vessels; it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends. Doors and windows are cut out to make a dwelling, and on the empty space within, its use depends. Thus, while the existence of things may be good, it is the non-existence in them that makes them serviceable.
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Obscure, like muddy waters.
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Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness.
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Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.
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He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.
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Dignified, like a guest.
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When the student is ready the teacher will appear.
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He who steals a hook shall be hanged; while he who steals the state shall be crowned as prince.
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The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.
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The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.
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Can you comprehend everything in the four directions and still do nothing?
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Great acts are made up of small deeds.
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The words of truth are always paradoxical. To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
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The best way to live / is to be like water / For water benefits all things / and goes against none of them.
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If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.
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If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence.
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If you understand others you are smart. If you understand yourself you are illuminated. If you overcome others you are powerful. If you overcome yourself you have strength. If you know how to be satisfied you are rich. If you can act with vigor, you have a will. If you don't lose your objectives you can be long-lasting. If you die without loss, you are eternal.
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Of the best rulers, The people only know that they exist; the next best they love and praise the next they fear; and the next they revile. When they do not command the people's faith, some will lose faith in them, and then they resort to oaths! But of the best when their task is accomplished, their work done, the people all remark, We have done it ourselves.
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He who accounts all things easy will have many difficulties.