Top 1242 Quotes & Sayings by Laozi - Page 3

The eternal void is filled with infinite possibilities

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.

Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.

Accept disgrace willingly... Accept being unimportant... Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things. Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.

With virtue and quietness one may conquer the world.

Before healing others, heal yourself

Those who act will fail. Those who seize will lose.

All men desire to free themselves solely from death; they do not know how to free themselves from life.

Quiet your mind and stop judging and resisting and manipulating the natural way.

Hold on to the center and make up your mind to rejoice in this paradise called life.

Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.

The real key to health and happiness and success is self knowledge

Do nondoing, strive for non-stiving, savor the flavourless, make much of little, repay enmity with virture; plan for difficulty when it is still easy, do the great while it is still small.

In work, do what you enjoy.

When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance.

The world is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by interfering.

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

Stop thinking, and end your problems. What difference between yes and no? What difference between success and failure? Must you value what others value, avoid what others avoid? How ridiculous!

Not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease. First realize that you are sick; then you can move toward health.

The value of teaching without words and accomplishing without action is understood by few in the world.

The best way to manage anything is by making use of its own nature.

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

A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. Thus by nature's own decree, the soft and gentle are triumphant.

Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it.

Why are the people starving?- Because their grain is being eaten up by the taxes That's why they're starving Why are people rebellious?- Because those above them meddle in their lives That's why they're rebellious Why do people regard death so lightly?- Because they are so involved with their own living That's why they regard death so lightly In the end, The treasure of life is missed by those who hold on and gained by those who let go

To have enough of enough is always enough.

The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to yin and yang. Yin and yang give birth to all things... The complete whole is the complete whole. So also is any part the complete whole... But forget about understanding and harmonizing and making all things one. The universe is already a harmonious oneness; just realize it.

How can one liberate the many? By first liberating his own being. He does this not by elevating himself, but by lowering himself. He lowers himself to that which is simple, modest, true; integrating it into himself, he becomes a master of simplicity, modesty, truth.

When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, and dignified as a king. Immersed in wonder, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.

The sage is sharp but does not cut, pointed but does not pierce, forthright but does not offend, bright but does not dazzle.

Use justice to rule a country. Use surprise to wage war. Use non-action to govern the world.

True perfection seems imperfect, yet it is perfectly itself. True fullness seems empty, yet it is fully present. True straightness seems crooked. True wisdom seems foolish. True art seems artless. The Master allows things to happen. She shapes events as they come. She steps out of the way and lets the Tao speak for itself.

Close your mouth, block off your senses, blunt your sharpness, untie your knots, soften your glare, settle your dust. This is the primal identity.

Not valuing wealth prevents theft.

The softest of stuff in the world, penetrates quickly the hardest, insubstantial, it enters where there is no room.

When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other. Long and short define each other. High and low depend on each other. Before and after follow each other. Therefore the Master acts without doing anything and teaches without saying anything. Things arise and she lets them come; things disappear and she lets them go. She has but doesn't possess, acts but doesn't expect. When her work is done, she forgets it. That is why it lasts forever.

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.

. . . the mind is desperate to fix the river {of events} in place: Possessed by ideas of the past, preoccupied with images of the future, it overlooks the plain truth of the moment.

It is wealth to be content.

Don't imagine that you'll discover {the truth} by accumulating more knowledge. Knowledge creates doubt, and doubt makes you ravenous for more knowledge. You can't get full eating this way.

Every step is on the path.

Without the tao, Kindness and compassion are replaced by law and justice; Faith and trust are supplanted by ritual and ceremony.

The Tao is infinite, eternal. Why is it eternal? It was never born; thus it can never die. Why is it infinite? It has no desires for itself; thus it is present for all beings. The Master stays behind; that is why she is ahead. She is detached from all things; that is why she is one with them. Because she has let go of herself, she is perfectly fulfilled.

If you want everything, you first have to give everything up.

See others as yourself. See families as your family. See towns as your town. See countries as your country. See worlds as your world.

Become totally empty Quiet the restlessness of the mind Only then will you witness everything unfolding from emptiness

Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness.

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

To become learned, each day add something. To become enlightened, each day drop something

If there is to be peace in the home, There must be peace in the heart.

Why separate your spiritual life and your practical life? To an integral being, there is no such distinction.

Excellent warriors are not violent.

Use the light that is in you to recover your natural clearness of sight

Express yourself completely, then keep quiet. Be like the forces of nature: when it blows, there is only wind; when it rains, there is only rain; when the clouds pass, the sun shines through. If you open yourself to the Tao, you are at one with the Tao and you can embody it completely. If you open yourself to insight, you are at one with insight and you can use it completely. If you open yourself to loss, you are at one with loss and you can accept it completely. Open yourself to the Tao, then trust your natural responses; and everything will fall into place.

The master understands that the universe is forever out of control

All action begins in rest... This is the ultimate truth.

Seeing the small is called clarity.

The wise man puts himself last and finds himself first.

As long as we have hope, we have direction, the energy to move, and the map to move by. We have a hundred alternatives, a thousand paths and an infinity of dreams. Hopeful, we are halfway to where we want to go; hopeless, we are lost forever.

Loving, hating, having expectations: all these are attachments. Attachment prevents the growth of one's true being.