Lao Tzu Quotes

210 Sourced Quotes

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

Lao Tzu
Abandon fancy theologies and imaginary ideas and do some ordinary daily work... {Engage in this work with} unswerving kindness and unending patience.

Lao Tzu
The (method of) correction shall by a turn become distortion, and the good in it shall by a turn become evil.

Lao Tzu
Arms are instruments of ill omen, not the instruments of the gentleman. When one is compelled to use them, it is best to do so without relish.

Lao Tzu
To know how little one knows is to have genuine knowledge. Not to know how little one knows is to be deluded. Only those who know when they are deluded can free themselves from such delusion. The intelligent people are not deluded, because they know and accept their ignorance as ignorance, and thereby have genuine knowledge.

Lao Tzu
The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.

Lao Tzu
Some help others in order to receive blessings and admiration. This is simply meaningless. Some cultivate themselves in part to serve others, in part to serve their own pride. They will understand, at best, half of the truth. But those who improve themselves for the sake of the world - to these, the whole truth of the universe will be revealed.

Lao Tzu
Don't think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness.

Lao Tzu
My own words are not the medicine, but a prescription; not the destination, but a map to help you reach it. When you get there, quiet your mind and close your mouth. Don't analyze the Tao. Strive instead to live it: silently, undividedly, with your whole harmonious being.

Lao Tzu
Creating without claiming, Doing without taking credit, Guiding without interfering, This is Primal Virtue.

Lao Tzu
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.

Lao Tzu
Conquering others takes force, conquering yourself is true strength.

Lao Tzu
The mature person perceives the fruitlessness of rigid, external methodologies.

Lao Tzu
He who stands on tiptoe is not steady. He who strides cannot maintain the pace. He who makes a show is not enlightened. He who is self-righteous is not respected. He who boasts achieves nothing. He who brags will not endure. According to followers of the Tao, "These are extra food and unnecessary luggage." They do not bring happiness, therefore followers of the Tao avoid them.

Lao Tzu
Can you be still and look inside?If so, then you know the truth is always available, and always responsive.

Lao Tzu
Weapons are instruments of fear; they are not a wise man's tools. He uses them only when he has no choice.

Lao Tzu
Because clarity and enlightenment are within your own nature, they are regained without moving an inch.

Lao Tzu
Why are the people rebellious? Because the rulers interfere too much. Therefore they are rebellious.

Lao Tzu
Live simply and virtuously, true to your nature, drawing no line between what is spiritual and what is not.

Lao Tzu
.. These are notions of the mind, which is like a knife, always chipping away at the Tao, trying to render it graspable and manageable. But that which is beyond form is ungraspable, and that which is beyond knowing is unmanageable. There is, however, this consolation: She who lets go of the knife will find the Tao at her fingertips.

Lao Tzu
If you go searching for the Great Creator, you will come back empty-handed. The source of the universe is ultimately unknowable, a great invisible river flowing forever through a vast and fertile valley. Silent and uncreated, it creates all things.

Lao Tzu
Nature's way is simple and easy, but men prefer the intricate and artificial.

Lao Tzu
Act non-action; undertake no undertaking; taste the tasteless.

Lao Tzu
I am good to people who are good. I am also good to people who are not good. Because Virtue is goodness.

Lao Tzu
Those who make their living by collecting taxes cause the people to starve; when the people starve, the tax collectors, having no one to tax, starve also

Lao Tzu
Remember: if you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear.

Lao Tzu
The named was born from the unnamed... all being flows from non-being... the describable world emanates from an indescribable source.

Lao Tzu
Who can enjoy enlightenment and remain indifferent to suffering in the world? This is not in keeping with the Way. Only those who increase their service along with their understanding can be called men and women of Tao.

Lao Tzu
The first practice is the practice of undiscriminating virtue: take care of those who are deserving; also, and equally, take care of those who are not. When you extend your virtue in all directions without discriminating, you feet are firmly planted on the path that returns to the Tao.

Lao Tzu
The wise student hears of the Tao and practices it diligently. The average student hears of the Tao and gives it thought now and again.

Lao Tzu