Lao Tzu Quotes
A taoist philosopher of ancient China, Lao Tzu is regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing). As with most other ancient Chinese philosophers, Lao Tzu often explains his ideas by way of paradox, analogy, repetition, symmetry, rhyme, and rhythm.
Lao Tzu describes taoism as unseen, but not transcendent, immensely powerful yet supremely humble, being the root of all things. According to the Tao Te Ching, humans have no special place within the Tao, being just one of its many ("ten thousand") manifestations. People have desires and free will (and thus are able to alter their own nature). Many act "unnaturally", upsetting the natural balance of the Tao. The Tao Te Ching intends to lead students to a "return" to their natural state, in harmony with Tao.
Here are a few of Lao Tzu's quotes:
To hold, you must first open your hand. Let go. ~Lao Tzu
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. ~Lao Tzu
All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness. ~Lao Tzu
To realize that our knowledge is ignorance is a noble insight. To regard our ignorance as knowledge is mental sickness. ~Lao Tzu
The sage never tries to store things up.
The more he does for others, the more he has.
The more he gives to others, the greater his abundance. ~Lao Tzu
Stay at the center and let all things take their course. ~Lao Tzu
Those who do not trust enough should not be trusted. ~Lao Tzu
Force is followed by loss of strength.
This is not the way of the Tao.
That which goes against the Tao comes to an early end. ~Lao Tzu
Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind become still. ~Lao Tzu
True words aren't eloquent. ~Lao Tzu
Wise people don't need to prove their point. ~Lao Tzu
By not dominating, the Master leads. ~Lao Tzu
Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. ~Lao Tzu
The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice. ~Lao Tzu
The Master can keep giving because there is no end to their wealth.
They act without expectation, succeed without taking credit,
and doesn't think that they are better than anyone else. ~Lao Tzu
If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
If you aren't afraid of dying, there is nothing you can't achieve. ~Lao Tzu
Act for other's benefit. Trust them; leave them alone. ~Lao Tzu
When people lose their sense of awe, they no longer trust themselves, and begin to depend upon others. Therefore the Master steps back so that people won't be confused. He teaches without a teaching, so that people will have nothing to learn. ~Lao Tzu
Not-knowing is true knowledge.
Presuming to know is a disease.
First realize that you are sick;
then you can move toward health. ~Lao Tzu
A good athlete can enter a state of body-awareness in which the right stroke or the right movement happens by itself, effortlessly, without any interference of the conscious will. This is a paradigm for non-action: the purest and most effective form of action. The game plays the game; the poem writes the poem; we can't tell the dancer from the dance. It happens when we trust the intelligence of the universe in the same way that an athlete or a dancer trusts the superior intelligence of the body. ~Lao Tzu
An army that cannot yield will be defeated
A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind
Thus by nature's own decree the hard and strong are defeated
the soft and gentle are triumphant. ~Lao Tzu
