Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Because he (the Sage) demands no honor, he will never be dishonored.
Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?
Can you care for the people and rule the country and not be cunning?
All things of the world are born of being; being is born of nonbeing.
When the great Tao is abandoned, benevolence and righteousness arise.
Harmony is called the eternal. Knowing the eternal is called clarity.
Rule your mind with serenity rather than with force and manipulation.
What the Way is to the world, the stream is to the river and the sea.
There was something that finished chaos, born before Heaven and Earth.
He who treasures his body as much as the world can care for the world.
Can you gather your vital breath and yet be tender like a newborn baby?
The Tao never acts with force, yet there is nothing that it can not do.
Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not dominate it over them.
There is no way to measure it ... because there's no one to measure it.
Knowing the future is the flower of the Way, and the beginning of folly.
Who has excess and supplies the world? Only the one who follows the Way.
Praise leads to weakness. Getting it causes fear, losing it causes fear.
Sometimes gain comes from losing, and sometimes loss comes from gaining.
What Heaven detests, who knows why? Even the sage considers it difficult.
Because he (the Sage) opposes no one, no one in the world can oppose him.
Abandon wisdom, discard knowledge, and people will benefit a hundredfold.
Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.
The sage does not strive to be great. Thereby he can accomplish the great.
Can you comprehend everything in the four directions and still do nothing?
The Way is hidden and nameless. Still only the Way nourishes and completes.
Only I am clumsy, like drifting on the waves of the sea, without direction.
Those who defeat others are strong, those who defeat themselves are mighty.
Great knowledge sees all in one. Small knowledge breaks down into the many.
Abandon cleverness, discard profit, and thieves and robbers will disappear.
Rituals are the end of fidelity and honesty, and the beginning of confusion.
Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath.
Heaven's net is very vast. It is sparsely meshed, yet nothing slips through.
We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it liveable.
Abandon benevolence, discard duty, and people will return to the family ties.
The value comes from what is there, but the use comes from what is not there.
Although he travels all day, the sage never loses sight of his luggage carts.
The sage never strives for greatness, and can therefore accomplish greatness.
Lao Tsu doesn't seem to hold to much stock for words or phrases or teachings.
The one who can dissolve her mind will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet.
Keeping plenty of gold and jade in the palace makes no one able to defend it.
He (the sage) wants all things to follow their own nature, but dares not act.
The sage has no concern for himself, but makes the concerns of others his own.
Don't impose your will through manipulation of aggressive emotions and actions.
If you scramble about in search of inner peace, you will lose your inner peace.
Good leaders reach solutions, and then stop. They do not dare to rely on force.
Valuing unusual conduct is not as good as being careful about ordinary actions.
Quiet your mind and stop judging and resisting and manipulating the natural way.
If Heaven were not clear it might rend. If Earth were not firm it might crumble.
The more sharp weapons people have in a country, the bigger the disorder will be.
Those who know it do not speak about it. Those who speak about it do not know it.