Lao Tzu Quotes
-
Mask your brightness. Be at one with the dust of the earth. This is primal union.
-
Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline; simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.
-
Returning to the source is serenity.
-
Give up your relentless moralizing, the continual pinpricks which pierce the skin of your fellows. The distinction between good and evil is the sickness of the mind. Give up your morals, and the people will regain a love of their fellows.
-
He who holds balance...has attained the highest post in the world.
-
The mature person perceives the fruitlessness of rigid, external methodologies; Remembering this, he keeps his attitude unstructured at all times and thus is always free to pursue the Integral Way. He studies the teachings of the masters. He dissolves all concepts of duality. He pours himself out in service to others.
-
Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.
-
Those who are right do not argue. Those who argue are not right.
-
To understand the limitation of things, desire them.
-
Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it.
-
The wise man looks back into the past, and does not grieve over what is far off, nor rejoice over what is near; for he knows that time is without end.
-
The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. The more weapons you have, the less secure people will be. The more subsidies you have, the less self reliant people will be.
-
If people do not revere the Law of Nature It will adversely affect them. If they accept It with knowledge and reverence, It will accommodate them with balance and harmony.
-
People are born soft and weak. They die hard and stiff.
-
When the student is ready the teacher will appear.
-
If you see what is small as it sees itself, and accept what is weak for what strength it has, and use what is dim for the light it gives then all will go well. This is called Acting Naturally.
-
To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
-
All things in the world come from being. And being comes from non-being.
-
It is better to do one's own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.
-
We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use.
-
Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.
-
The more sharp weapons people have in a country, the bigger the disorder will be.
-
Prepare for the difficult while it is still easy. Deal with the big while it is still small. Difficult undertakings have always started with what easy. Great undertakings always started with what is small. Therefore the sage never strives for the great,And thereby the great is achieved.
-
The great Way is all-pervading. It reaches to the left and to the right. All things depend on it with their existence. Still it demands no obedience.