Quotes About Taoism

#1. Everyone is groping and grasping," he says. "People are turning to Buddhism, Christianity, self-help, and Taoism. CEOs and billionaires run around with their spiritual masters and visit meditation rooms.

Anonymous

#2. Taoism shows us how to deal with life and death by realizing everything here is transitory but its substance is eternal:

Frederick Lenz

#3. I'm not even sure that Buddhism is a religion really. It seems like more of just a spiritual practice, I'd compare it more to Taoism than religion.

Sienna McQuillen

#4. Taoism has no rules. It's a suggestion for preceiving life in its wholeness, without unnessary categorization, yet enjoying the beauty of categorization.

Frederick Lenz

#5. Taoism is the gentle way. The path of least resistence.

Frederick Lenz

#6. Lao Tsu found Taoism easy to reconcile withthe world of human beings, which is interesting because with all the nature imagery, one might think it was in some way antithetical to contempory life.

Frederick Lenz

#7. If you are interested in Taoism, I would suggest that you read the Way of Life by Lao Tsu, the founder of Taoism. I personally prefer the Witter Brynner translation.

Frederick Lenz

#8. ... the doctrinal differences between Hinduism and Buddhism and Taoism are not anywhere near as important as doctrinal differences among Christianity and Islam and Judaism. Holy wars are not fought over them because verbalized statements about reality are never presumed to be reality itself.

Robert M. Pirsig

#9. Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism and others.

Hugo Black

#10. Taoism is the profoundest nonconformism that has ever been evolved anywhere in the world, at any time in history; essentially it is rebellion.

Osho

#11. "What's that?" the Unbeliever asked.
"Wisdom from the Western Taoist,"I said.
"It sounds like something from Winnie-the-Pooh ," he said.
"It is," I said.
"That's not about Taoism," he said.
"Oh, yes it is," I said."

Benjamin Hoff

#12. This is the 21st century, yet Western scholars are happy to keep it colonial, describing Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism in Greco-Hellenic or Judeo-Christians terms.

Thorsten J. Pattberg

#13. Some people think Taoism means not doing anything, just going on with your life. That has little or nothing to do with Taoism.

Frederick Lenz

#14. Different Chinese philosophers, writing probably in 5-4 centuries B.C., presented some major ideas and a way of life that are nowadays known under the name of Taoism, the way of correspondence between man and the tendency or the course of natural world.

Alan Watts

#15. Taoism is not a religion, although perhaps it has been made into one by some people. Lao Tsu's way of life occurs in any spiritual philosophy.

Frederick Lenz

#16. Taoism was an active power during the Shin dynasty, that epoch of Chinese unification from which we derive the name China.

Okakura Kakuzo

#17. Taoism means streching your being, becoming both a man and a woman and joining within yourself, to be the heavens themselves, to stretch your awareness beyond the breaking point until all opposites are reconciled within yourself.

Frederick Lenz

#18. Lao-tze's Taoism is the exhibition of a way or method of living which men should cultivate as the highest and purest development of their nature.

James Legge

#19. Taoism extols the virtue of flexibility. What survives on earth is what effortlessly adapts to the changing environment and changing circumstances.

Ernie J Zelinski

#20. Taoism is the way of water. The most frequent element or symbol refered to in Lao Tzu's wrtings is the symbol of water.

Frederick Lenz

#21. All of Chinese thinking - Confucianism, Taoism, as well as Buddhism - contains the idea that in the course of life, man will shape harmoniously those psychic and physical predispositions that he received as capital assets by unifying them and giving them form from within a center.

Richard Wilhelm

#22. But the basic Taoism that we are concerned with here is simply a particular way of appreciating, learning from, and working with whatever happens in everyday life.

Benjamin Hoff

#23. The essence of Taoism is really expressed by these few words. Taoism is the way of the child, the way of the fool, the way of someone who doesn't need to be noticed.

Frederick Lenz

#24. The ku-magic is a very ancient magic. It predates Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

Laurence Yep

#25. The teachings of Osho, in fact, encompass many religions, but he is not defined by any of them. He is an illuminating speaker on Zen, Taoism, Tibetan Buddhism, Christianity and ancient Greek philosophy ... and also a prolific author.

Nevill Drury

#26. I am wearied, as if I lacked a home to go to.

Laozi

#27. The highest virtue is not virtuous. Therefore it has virtue. The lowest virtue holds on to virtue. Therefore it has no virtue.

Laozi

#28. Do not make them (people) weary at their work. If you do not make them weary, they will not be weary of you.

Laozi

#29. So it is said, for him who understands Heavenly joy, life is the working of Heaven; death is the transformation of things. In stillness, he and the yin share a single Virtue; in motion, he and the yang share a single flow.

Zhuangzi

#30. Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.

Alan W. Watts

#31. What Heaven detests, who knows why? Even the sage considers it difficult.

Laozi

#32. The mind of the child is not formed. We are shown that this is life, this is the world.

Frederick Lenz

#33. If I have just an ounce of sense, I follow the great Way, and fear only to stray from it.

Laozi

#34. The sage does not act and therefore does not fail, does not seize and therefore does not lose.

Laozi

#35. Those who defeat others are strong, those who defeat themselves are mighty.

Laozi

#36. Filling all the way to the brim is not as good as halting in time.

Laozi

#37. When leading people and serving Heaven, nothing exceeds moderation.

Laozi

#38. Why did the ancients praise the Way? Did they not say it was because you find what you seek and are saved from your wrongdoings?

Laozi

#39. Heavy is the root of light.

Laozi

#40. Thorn bushes grow where armies have camped.

Laozi

#41. The ancients said: Hulk to be whole.

Laozi

#42. The virtuous carry out the settlement, but those without virtue pursue their claims.

Laozi

#43. Lao Tsu says the way of life is water, to be fluid.

Frederick Lenz

#44. Displaying riches and titles with pride brings about one's downfall.

Laozi

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

Lao-Tzu

#46. The most difficult in the world must be easy in its beginning.

Laozi

#47. Fine words are traded. Noble deeds gain respect. But people who are not good, why abandon them?

Laozi

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

Laozi

#49. The sturdiest virtue seems fragile.

Laozi

#50. There is no greater disaster than discontent.

Laozi

#51. When the uncarved wood is split, its parts are put to use. When the sage is put to use, he becomes the head.

Laozi

#52. What has no substance can penetrate what has no opening.

Laozi

#53. Because he (the Sage) opposes no one, no one in the world can oppose him.

Laozi

#54. If people live in constant fear of death, and if breaking the law is punished by death, then who would dare?

Laozi

#55. We create ying and yang, yes and no, plus and minus.

Frederick Lenz

#56. There is one appointed supreme executioner. Truly, trying to take the place of the supreme executioner is like trying to carve wood like a master carpenter. Of those who try to carve wood like a master carpenter, there are few who do not injure their hands.

Laozi

#57. Just as when water is frozen in to a form as ice and then melts - so at the time of death, there is no death. The spirit simply changes form.

Frederick Lenz

#58. When good thing are accomplished, it does not claim (or name) them. This is Te, which is close in meaning to power or virtue. It is something within a person, and it is enhanced by following the Tao, or 'that from which nothing can deviate'.

Laozi

#59. Because he (the Sage) demands no honor, he will never be dishonored.

Laozi

#60. You have only to rest in inaction and things will transform themselves. Smash your form and body, spit out hearing and eyesight, forget you are a thing among other things, and you may join in great unity with the deep and boundless.

Zhuangzi

#61. Yielding is the manner of the Way.

Laozi

#62. When there is time, there has to be suffering. Because in time there's desire and attachment and transition. This is the world of experience.

Frederick Lenz

#63. Yielding, like ice about to melt.

Laozi

#64. When we practice sacred sexuality we are working with cosmologically rooted principles, balancing the heavenly yang (male energy) of the universe with the all-knowing, life-giving yin (feminine energy) of the earth within ourselves.

John Maxwell Taylor

#65. Those who stand on their toes are not steady.

Laozi

#66. The best way to carve is not to split.

Laozi

#67. Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?

Laozi

#68. The I Cing is a study in duality and what lies beyond duality.

Frederick Lenz

#69. If you can find true contentment, it will last forever.

Laozi

#70. Pursue without interfering.

Laozi

#71. Wary, as if surrounded by strangers.

Laozi

#72. When you have accomplished your goal simply walk away. This is the path way to Heaven.

Laozi

#73. The truly great ones rely on substance, and not on surface, hold on to the fruit, and not to the flower.

Laozi

#74. In adversity, everything that surrounds you is a kind of medicine that helps you refine your conduct, yet you are unaware of it. In pleasant situations, you are faced with weapons that will tear you apart, yet you do not realize it.

Zicheng Hong

#75. He (the sage) wants all things to follow their own nature, but dares not act.

Laozi

#76. Only the intelligent knows how to identify all things as one ... When one is at ease with himself, one is near Tao. This is to let Nature take its own course.

Zhuangzi

#77. To notice people's deceptions yet not reveal it in words, to bear people's insults without showing any change of attitude-there is endless meaning in this, and also endless function.

Zicheng Hong

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

Laozi

#79. As soon as rules were made, names were given. There are already many names. One must know when it is enough.

Laozi

#80. Those who boast are not respected.

Laozi

#81. The sage embraces the one, and is an example to the world.

Laozi

#82. The Master's power is like this. He lets all things come and go effortlessly, without desire. He never expects results; thus he is never disappointed. He is never disappointed; thus his spirit never grows old.

Laozi

#83. Treat gain and loss the same.' Don't be Intimidated. Don't make a Big Deal of anything - just accept things as they come to you.

Benjamin Hoff

#84. The world's beginning is its mother. To have found the mother is also to know the children. Although you know the children, cling to the mother. Until your last day you will not be harmed.

Laozi

#85. Those who are content suffer no disgrace.

Laozi

#86. The weak overcomes the strong. The soft overcomes the hard. Everybody in the world knows this, still nobody makes use of it.

Laozi

#87. If a branch is too rigid, it will break. Resist, and you will perish. Know how to yield, and you will survive.

Liezi

#88. If you have a good idea, use it so that you will not only accomplish something, but so that you can make room for new ones to flow into you.

Ming-Dao Deng

#89. Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself.

Laozi

#90. Pounding an edge to sharpness will not make it last.

Laozi

#91. People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.

Laozi

#92. All things arise in unison. Thereby we see their return.

Laozi

#93. The Tao is told is not the Tao.

Laozi

#94. To be of few words is natural.

Laozi

#95. Polish what you polish until it is like gold that has been refined a hundred times; anything that is done in a hurry is not deeply developed. Do what you do like a thousand-pound catapult; one who pops off too easily does not accomplish much.

Zicheng Hong

#96. Not valuing wealth prevents theft.

Laozi

#97. Heaven and Earth last for ever. Why do Heaven and Earth last for ever? They are unborn, so ever living. The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead. He is detached, thus at one with all. Through selfless action, he attains fulfillment.

Laozi

#98. The Tao never acts with force, yet there is nothing that it can not do.

Laozi

#99. The Way is eternal. Until your last day, you are free from peril.

Laozi

#100. Those who stay where they are will endure.

Laozi