Laozi Quotes

When people are unsettled, loyal ministers arise.

The most able seems clumsy.

To know and not to do is not yet to know.

By steadily disciplining the animal nature, until it becomes one pointed, it is possible to establish conscious awareness of The Eternal.

Those who praise victory relish manslaughter. Those who relish manslaughter cannot reach their goals in the world.

Who is unhappy with little, won't be with much; who doesn't appreciate the small won't be able to take care of the large; who doesn't have enough with enough is at the margin or virtue, for the physical body lives from one day to another and if it gets what it really needs, there will be time for meditation, as long as if we try to give it everything it desires, endless will be the task.

Whatever one cultivates, is what one becomes.

In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.

To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!

The rigid and big belong below. The soft and weak belong above.

Complete your task. Seek no reward. Make no claims. Without faltering fully choose to do what you must do.

Without stepping out the door, you can know the world.

What should be shrunken must first be stretched.

Seek not happiness too greedily and be not fearful of happiness.

Even the longest journey must begin where you stand.

Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.

True humility involves opposites. The truly humble work in silence. Because they do not speak of their accomplishments, credit for them can never be taken away.

Of the second-rate leaders people speak respectfully saying, "He has done this, he has done that." Of the first-rate leaders, they do not say this. They say, "We have done it all ourselves."

Because he (the Sage) opposes no one, no one in the world can oppose him.

The sage is not ill, because he sees illness as illness.

Tao in the world is like a river flowing home to the sea.

The one who rules like the mother lasts long.

The truest sayings are paradoxical.

...the more you talk of it, the less you understand.

Great talents ripen late; the highest notes are hard to hear.

Covetousness is the greatest misfortune. One who does not know what is enough will never have enough.

Instead of being afraid of death, we should try to awake to life; and the only death we should escape from is to forget the presence of God into us.

People take death lightly. They expect too much of life. That is why people take death lightly.

Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath.

Be the chief but never the lord.

I find good people good And I find bad people good If I am good enough.

I alone have the mind of a fool, and am all muddled and vague. The people are so smart and bright. While I am just dull and confused.

The world is won by those who let it go.

Great indeed is the sublimity of the creative, to which all beings owe their beginning and which permeates all heaven.

A good manager is best when people barely know that he exists. Not so good when people obey and acclaim him. Worse when they despise him.

Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you.

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil. Therefore having and not having arise together. Difficult and easy complement each other. Long and short contrast each other. High and low rest upon each other. Voice and sound harmonize each other. Front and back follow one another.

To conquer others is to have power, to conquer yourself is to know the way.

Life and death are one thread.

Those who know when to halt are unharmed.

A tree trunk the size of a man grows from a blade as thin as a hair. A tower nine stories high is built from a small heap of earth.

Know the white, But keep the black, Be an example to the world! Being an example to the world, Ever true and unwavering, Return to the infinite.

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the various creatures as straw dogs; the sage is ruthless, and treats others as straw dogs.

There is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things.

Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river.

Mold clay into a bowl. The empty space makes it useful.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step and if that step is the right step, it becomes the last step.