Lao Tzu Tao Quotes

#1. Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself? LAO-TZU, Tao-te-Ching

Jon Kabat-Zinn

#2. Perfect tranquillity is the way of heaven and earth.

Lao-Tzu

#3. He who devotes himself to the Tao (seeks) from day to day to diminish (his doing).

Lao-Tzu

#4. Revere the unity of all-that-is
carry out your daily activities with compassion;
if you do not limit your compassion,
you yourself will not be limited.

Lao-Tzu

#5. When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Lao-Tzu

#6. Too much thinking causes confusion and anxiety
better to stick with the simplicity of Tao

Lao-Tzu

#7. There is
a time to live
and a time to die
but never to reject the moment.

Lao-Tzu

#8. (Those who) possessed in highest degree the attributes (of the Tao) did not (seek) to show them, and therefore they possessed them (in fullest measure).

Lao-Tzu

#9. Material and infinite are inseparable
Appreciating their interconnectedness
is the gateway to understanding

Lao-Tzu

#10. The grace of Tao
and divine nature (Te)
are not ordered
but eternal spontaneous
action of the One

Lao-Tzu

#11. How can one know the eternal origin?
By letting go of ideas
and allowing it to reveal itself

Lao-Tzu

#12. Too many words cause exhaustion
[In the mind or from the mouth]
Better to abide in stillness

Lao-Tzu

#13. One gains by losing and loses by gaining.

Lao-Tzu

#14. Tao 'is' before words
and before deeds

Lao-Tzu

#15. Let go of rousing speech
and identification with thoughts
Until your end
you will never be jaded

Lao-Tzu

#16. Heaven's Tao is impartial,
yet those who follow its compassionate way
will always be nourished

Lao-Tzu

#17. Possessed of the Tao, he endures long; and to the end of his bodily life, is exempt from all danger of decay.

Lao-Tzu

#18. What is the Tao Te Ching? Five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a God-realized being named Lao-tzu in ancient China dictated 81 verses which are regarded by many as the ultimate commentary on the nature of existence.

Wayne Dyer

#19. When men lost their understanding of the Tao, intelligence came along, bringing hypocrisy with it.

Lao-Tzu

#20. A person who prematurely believes that they comprehend the Tao sees only its external luster, and this is the beginning of delusion.

Lao-Tzu

#21. Earth is a divine organism
it cannot be successfully manipulated
Who attempts manipulation will encounter defeat

Lao-Tzu

#22. Stand before it and there is no beginning. Follow it and there is no end. Stay with the ancient Tao, Move with the present.

Lao-Tzu

#23. (So), he who has the attributes (of the Tao) regards (only) the conditions of the engagement, while he who has not those attributes regards only the conditions favourable to himself.

Lao-Tzu

#24. To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go: for just letting it go is what makes it stay.

Lao-Tzu

#25. Thus it was that when faith (in the Tao) was deficient (in the rulers) a want of faith in them ensued (in the people).

Lao-Tzu

#26. The sage gives more than he takes;
how can he do this?
because he has the richness of Tao

Lao-Tzu

#27. Two names emerge from a single origin and both are called mysterious.

Lao-Tzu

#28. To understand the limitation of things, desire them.

Lao-Tzu

#29. When the highest type of men hear Tao,
They diligently practice it.
When the average type of men hear Tao,
They half believe in it.
When the lowest type of men hear Tao,
They laugh heartily at it.
Without the laugh, there is no Tao

Lao-Tzu

#30. Peace is our original state

Lao-Tzu

#31. Attain complete emptiness,
Hold fast to stillness.
Understanding the ordinary:
Mind opens.
Mind opening leads to compassion,
Compassion to nobility,
Nobility to heavenliness,
Heavenliness to TAO.
TAO endures.
Your body dies.
There is no danger.

Lao-Tzu

#32. The hard and mighty lie beneath the ground
While the tender and weak dance on the breeze above.

Lao-Tzu

#33. The great Tao is universal like a flood ... All creatures depend on it, and it denies nothing to anyone. It does its work, but it makes no claims for itself. It clothes and feeds all, but it does not lord it over them.

Lao-Tzu

#34. Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, earnestly carry it into practice.

Lao-Tzu

#35. The Tao is hidden, and has no name; but it is the Tao which is skilful at imparting (to all things what they need) and making them complete.

Lao-Tzu

#36. When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, There arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, There arises the recognition of evil. - Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching

Scott Westerfeld

#37. There was something undifferentiated and yet complete, which existed before Heaven and Earth. Soundless and formless, it depends on nothing and does not change. It operates everywhere and is free from danger. It may be considered the mother of the universe. I do not know its name; I call it Tao.

Lao-Tzu

#38. When the Great Tao (Way or Method) ceased to be observed, benevolence and righteousness came into vogue.

Lao-Tzu

#39. This is what is called 'The mysterious Quality' (of the Tao).

Lao-Tzu

#40. When I let go of who I am, I become who I might be.

Lao-Tzu

#41. If I were suddenly to become known, and (put into a position to) conduct (a government) according to the Great Tao, what I should be most afraid of would be a boastful display.

Lao-Tzu

#42. When the court is arrayed in splendor, The fields are full of weeds, And the granaries are empty. Some wear gorgeous clothes, Carry sharp swords, And indulge in food and drink; They have more possessions than they can use. They are robber barons. This is certainly not the way of Tao.

Lao-Tzu

#43. Emptiness appears barren
yet is infinite fullness

Lao-Tzu

#44. To know non-knowing is optimal
to imagine one knows
is affliction of mind

Lao-Tzu

#45. Who acts in stillness finds stillness in his life.

Lao-Tzu

#46. Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.

Lao-Tzu

#47. When we can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of Tao.

Lao-Tzu

#48. By this (nature of the Tao).

Lao-Tzu

#49. With those who are kind
the sage is kind
With those who are not kind
the sage is also kind
because the way of Tao is kindness

Lao-Tzu

#50. For the sage
Heaven and Earth join
in bestowing the greatest gifts

Lao-Tzu

#51. Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil.

Lao-Tzu

#52. Countless words
count less
than the silent balance
between yin and yang

Lao-Tzu

#53. Hence (its way) is near to (that of) the Tao.

Lao-Tzu

#54. The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness.

Lao-Tzu

#55. With those who are sincere
the sage is sincere
With those who are insincere
the sage is also sincere
because the way of Tao is sincerity

Lao-Tzu

#56. For to be over-developed is to hasten decay, and this is against Tao, and what is against Tao will soon cease to be.

Lao-Tzu

#57. The Tao that can be described is not the enduring and unchanging Tao.

Lao-Tzu