Laozi Quotes

#1. The reason why rivers and seas are able to be lords over a hundred mountain streams, is that they know how to keep below them. That is why they are able to reign over all the mountain streams.

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#2. To know one's ignorance is the best part of knowledge.

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#3. Even the longest journey must begin where you stand.

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#4. He who walks on tip-toe does not walk on solid ground.

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#5. People are hard to govern. The rulers interfere with too much. That is why people are hard to govern.

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#6. Surrender your self-interest. Love others as much as you love yourself. Then you can be entrusted with all things under heaven.

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#7. Trustable words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not trustable.

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#8. A great country needs more people to serve it. A small country needs more people to serve. So, if both shall get what they need, the great country ought to yield.

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#9. Wary, as if surrounded by strangers.

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#10. Follow diligently the Way in your own heart, but make no display of it to the world.

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#11. Going back to the origin is called peace; it means reversion to destiny. Reversion to destiny is called eternity. Those who know eternity are called enlightened.

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#12. Those who boast are not respected.

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#13. 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.

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#14. Not valuing wealth prevents theft.

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#15. A brave and passionate man will kill or be killed.
A brave and calm man will always preserve life.
Of these two which is good and which is harmful?

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#16. If a great country yields to a small country, it will conquer the small country. If a small country yields to a great country, it will be conquered by the great country.

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#17. The good leader carries water for his people.

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#18. Reputation should be neither sought nor avoided.

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#19. Gain or loss, what is worse?

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#20. I have three treasures that I cherish. The first is compassion. The second is moderation. The third is not claiming to be first in the world.

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#21. Mask your brightness. Be at one with the dust of the earth. This is primal union.

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#22. A great country is like the lower outlet of a river. It is the world's meeting ground, the world's female.

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

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#24. The most able seems clumsy.

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#25. When superior people hear of the Way, they carry it out with diligence. When middling people hear of the Way, it sometimes seems to be there, sometimes not. When lesser people hear of the Way, they ridicule it greatly. If they didn't laugh at it, it wouldn't be the Way.

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#26. The most eloquent seems to stutter.

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#27. Only I am clumsy, like drifting on the waves of the sea, without direction.

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

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

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#30. It is as though he listened and such listening as his enfolds us in silence in which at last we begin to hear what we are meant to be.

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#31. A climb of eight hundred feet starts where the foot stands.

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#32. The rigid tree will be felled.

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#33. Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results.

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#34. As for the "proper way:" it is the beginning of disorder.

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#35. How do I know about the world? By what is within me.

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#36. Justice has long arm.

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#37. To have little is to possess.

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#38. The more clever and cunning people are, the stranger the events will be.

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#39. The wise man knows without traveling.

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#40. 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.

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#41. In this world, there is nothing softer or thinner than water. But to compel the hard and unyielding, it has no equal. That the weak overcomes the strong, that the hard gives way to the gentle - this everyone knows. Yet no one asks accordingly.

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

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#43. The Way begets one; one begets two; two begets three; three begets the myriad creatures.

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#44. Man at his birth is supple and tender, but in death, he is rigid and hard. Thus, suppleness and tenderness accompany life, but rigidity and hardness accompany death.

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#45. Those who know when to halt are unharmed.

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#46. Those who understand others are clever, those who understand themselves are wise.

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#47. Be content with an ordinary life.

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#48. Your name or your body, what is dearer? Your body or your wealth, what is worthier?

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#49. Seal the openings, shut the doors, dull the sharpness, untie the knots, dim the light, become one with the dust. This is called the profound union.

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#50. The most fundamental seems fickle.

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#51. Abandon knowledge and your worries are over.

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#52. The usefulness of a pot comes from its emptiness.

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#53. The whole world says that my Way is great like nothing else. It is great because it is like nothing else. If it were like everything else, it would long ago have become insignificant.

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

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#55. If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go.

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#56. My words are easy to understand and easy to perform,
Yet no man under heaven knows them or practices them.

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#57. Clay is moulded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing ... Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not.

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#58. What is well rooted cannot be pulled up. What is firmly grasped will not slip loose. It will be honoured from generation to generation.

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#59. A sage is skilled at helping people without excluding anyone.

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#60. A foolish man is always doing, Yet much remains to be done.

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#61. He who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm.

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#62. Only by working within the laws that govern the flow of water will happiness be achieved.

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#63. Going on means going far, going far means returning.

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#64. Abandon cleverness, discard profit, and thieves and robbers will disappear.

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

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#66. When many people are killed, they should be mourned and lamented. Those who are victorious in war should follow the rites of funerals.

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#67. Behave simply and hold on to purity.

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#68. The feminine values are the fountain of bliss. Know the masculine, Keep to the feminine.

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#69. Abandon benevolence, discard duty, and people will return to the family ties.

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#70. All things carry yin and embrace yang. They reach harmony by blending with the vital breath.

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#71. Never take over the world to tamper with it. Those who want to tamper with it are not fit to take over the world.

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#72. Nature doesn't make long speeches.

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#73. The Tao is always at ease. It overcomes without competing, answers without speaking a word, arrives without being summoned, accomplishes without a plan. Its net covers the whole universe. And though its meshes are wide, it doesn't let a thing slip through.

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#74. It is wisdom to know others. It is enlightenment to know oneself.

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#75. Those who are right do not argue. Those who argue are not right.

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#76. To bear the country's disgrace is to rule the shrines of soil and grain. To bear the country's misfortunes is to be the king of the world.

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#77. Weapons are not proper instruments for gentle people; they use them only when they have no other choice. Peace and quiet are what they value. They do not glory in victory.

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#78. When family ties are disturbed, devoted children arise.

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#79. Nature does not have to insist.

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#80. In lightness the root is lost. In haste the ruler is lost.

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#81. A good speaker does not stutter.

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#82. The master accomplishes more and more by doing less and less until finally he accomplishes everything by doing nothing.

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#83. The Way is empty, yet inexhaustible, like an abyss!

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#84. Although he travels all day, the sage never loses sight of his luggage carts.

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#85. Good leaders reach solutions, and then stop. They do not dare to rely on force.

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#86. When goodness is lost, it is replaced by morality.

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#87. He (the Sage) does not show off, therefore he shines.

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#88. When everyone sees good, then bad exists.

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#89. What's the difference between yes and no?

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

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#91. In the Way of Heaven, there is no partiality of love; it is always on the side of the good man.

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#92. In the Golden Age, Rulers were unknown. In the following age Rulers were loved and praised. Next came the age When rulers were feared. Finally the age When rulers are hated.

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#93. Those who seek knowledge, collect something every day. Those who seek the Way, let go of something every day.

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#94. Those who advice the ruler on the Way, do not want the world subdued with weapons.

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#95. Let the country be small, and the inhabitants few.

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#96. If princes and kings were not exalted they might be overthrown.

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#97. The Master views the parts with compassion, because he understands the whole. His constant practice is humility. He doesn't glitter like a jewel but lets himself be shaped by the Tao, as rugged and common as a stone.

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#98. Heaven and Earth are not kind. They regard all things as offerings.

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#99. The one who rules like the mother lasts long.

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#100. Clay is fashioned into vessels; it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends. Doors and windows are cut out to make a dwelling, and on the empty space within, its use depends. Thus, while the existence of things may be good, it is the non-existence in them that makes them serviceable.

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