The Tao Quotes

#1. 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

#2. 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

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

Alan W. Watts

#4. Our western mind lacking all culture in this respect, has never yet devised a concept, not even a name for "the union of opposites through the middle path", that most fundamental item of inward experience which could respectably be set against the Chinese concept of Tao.

Carl Jung

#5. Was at the core of primeval beliefs. Its names are as old as history itself ... Dharmakaya, Tao, Brahman.

Dan Brown

#6. The follower of Tao is always flexible and adaptable to circumstance.

Ming-Dao Deng

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

Lao-Tzu

#8. I'm not good with blogs and social networks because those things come and go. By the time I am used to one thing, a new type of social media is already trending.

Tao Okamoto

#9. 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.

Laozi

#10. 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

#11. Though (the Tao) is uncreated itself, it creates all things. Because it has no substance, it can enter into where there is no space. Exercising by returning to itself, winning victories by remaining gentle and yielding, it is softer than anything, and therefore overcomes everything hard.

Laozi

#12. The Way of Tao is this: It strives not, but conquers; It speaks not, but all is made clear; It summons not, but its house is crowded; It contrives not, but the design is perfect.

Laozi

#13. Respect the people you lie to, Tao had taught her. Steal from them long enough, and you will begin to understand them.

Brandon Sanderson

#14. The Tao is unpredictable to those that live according to plans. Only those who have no agenda are in harmony with the Tao.

Laozi

#15. When the Superior Man eats he does not try to stuff himself; at rest he does not seek perfect comfort; he is diligent in his work and careful in speech. He avails himself to people of the Tao and thereby corrects himself. This is the kind of person of whom you can say, 'he loves learning.'

Confucius

#16. Hugh Jackman is just the nicest person in the world. I know everybody says that, and it's almost boring to hear, but he is really, really perfect.

Tao Okamoto

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

Lao-Tzu

#18. Moose had no friends that year. A lot of the time a moose would feel tired and lean against other moose. Only there wouldn't be moose there and the moose would fall.

Tao Lin

#19. Understand this if nothing else: spiritual freedom and oneness with the Tao are not randomly bestowed gifts, but the rewards of conscious self-transformation and self-evolution.

Laozi

#20. 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

#21. Find your own rhythm, and confidently go with that rhythm. When you become one with the rhythm and flow of your own life, you will encounter the rhythm of the universe that bestows harmony and order upon all things: the pulse of the cosmos, Yullyeo.

Ilchi Lee

#22. 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

#23. The correct arrangement of words will make these bad feelings go away tonight.

Tao Lin

#24. 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

#25. The Tao is great. The universe is great. Earth is great. Man is great. These are the four great powers. Man follows the earth. Earth follows the universe. The universe follows the Tao. The Tao follows only itself.

Laozi

#26. All that we do is governed by the law of opposites in which every so-called positive act is exactly and equally balanced by its opposite.;

Tony Parsons

#27. 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

#28. The three jewels of Tao: compassion, moderation, and humility. Balthasar said compassion leads to courage, moderation leads to generosity, and humility leads to leadership.

Christopher Moore

#29. When the ancient Masters said, "If you want to be given everything, give everything up," they weren't using empty phrases. Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself.

Laozi

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

Lao-Tzu

#31. 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

#32. Then I did The Tao of Steve and that was at Sundance in 2000 where it did really well.

Donal Logue

#33. 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

#34. Heaven cannot but be high. Earth cannot but be broad. The sun and moon cannot but revolve. All creation cannot but flourish. To do so is their TAO. But it is not from extensive study that this may be known, nor by dialectical skill that his may be made clear. The true sage will have none of these.

Zhuangzi

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

Lao-Tzu

#36. I never thought anything about age. I believed sincerely and still do, that there's nothing I cannot do. I believe that all the power in the universe is right inside me.

Tao Porchon-Lynch

#37. It can often be profitable to try a technique on a problem even if you know in advance that it cannot possibly solve the problem completely.

Terence Tao

#38. Autumn is a reminder that while the leaves die and fall, there will always be Spring, a chance to replenish and be reborn again. We all have the opportunity to replenish ourselves, to be reborn.

Tao Porchon-Lynch

#39. Can you let go of words and ideas, attitudes and expectations? If so, then the Tao will loom into view.

Laozi

#40. The ancient teaching of Tao tells us that knowing what you really are is wisdom, and living it is virtue.

Ilchi Lee

#41. In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.

Laozi

#42. 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

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

Laozi

#44. Marian Head is a true student of Tao. Her insightful and persuasive 'Wu-Wei' approaches for personal transformation reach our hearts with open invitation to join the 'soft' revolution and harmonious agreement for all.

Chungliang Al Huang

#45. Everyone is folding boxes. Andrew is folding boxes. If the entire job were to fold boxes people would scream. They would fold, and sometimes scream, existentially, then be dragged into a field and beaten into a paste. Sometimes there would be a killing rampage.

Tao Lin

#46. PRO TIP: IF YOU'RE SAD AND ALONE IN THE PLACE YOU LIVE THEN YOU GO TO ANOTHER PLACE YOU WILL STILL BE SAD AND ALONE WHEN YOU COME BACK

Tao Lin

#47. Lately, they were always reassuring each other that nothing was wrong; and probably it was true - life wasn't supposed to be incredible, after all. Life wasn't some incredible movie. Life was all the movies, ever, happening at once. There were good ones, bad ones, some went straight to video.

Tao Lin

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

Laozi

#49. The eye of Ego to the eye of Tao

Ilchi Lee

#50. 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

#51. You will ride the Tao
toward the concrescence
and will be able to live in the light
of its anticipation.

Terence McKenna

#52. The Spirit Tower has its guardian, but unless it understands who its guardian is, it cannot be guarded.

Zhuangzi

#53. And perhaps this is what Tukten knows - that the journey to Dolpo, step by step and day by day, is the Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus, the Tao, the Way, the Path, but no more so than small events of days at home.

Peter Matthiessen

#54. Mind is knowledge, meditation is non-knowledge. Mind knows, meditation experiences. Mind can only give you a certain acquaintance but not the taste. If you want the taste of the Tao you have to move to no-mind, to Meditation.

Rajneesh

#55. Regarding drugs: just the existence of drugs seems troubling to me.

Tao Lin

#56. I am happiest when I clear my mind and allow the world around me to reteach me what I thought I already knew.

Vironika Tugaleva

#57. Who can enjoy enlightenment and remain indifferent to suffering in the world? This is not in keeping with the Way. Only those who increase their service along with their understanding can be called men and women of Tao.

Laozi

#58. Breath is the power behind all things ... I breathe in and know that good things will happen.

Tao Porchon-Lynch

#59. For me art is a spontaneous journey on the crest of the Tao's wave,

David Jay Brown

#60. The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of all things.

Laozi

#61. There is something obscure which is complete before heaven and earth arose; tranquil, quiet, standing alone without change, moving without peril. It could be the mother of everything. Not knowing its name, I call it Tao.

Laozi

#62. Open wide your heart and accept all the experiences of life. Don't let any moment go half-lived. Live with greatness even in moments of sadness and pain. It is no shame to trip and fall as you walk the path of life. Just get up and continue on your way.

Ilchi Lee

#63. There is nothing we cannot do if we harness the power within us.

Tao Porchon-Lynch

#64. I remember when I saw 'X-Men' the first time, I was living in England as an exchange student, and my first boyfriend, who's an Englishman, made me watch the movie ... He was very jealous that I liked Hugh Jackman so much.

Tao Okamoto

#65. I don't actually enjoy parties or relationships, I just like the idea that I could maybe be in either of those things

Tao Lin

#66. Instead of trying to be a mountain, teaches the ancient Tao Te Ching, "Be the valley of the universe."4 In this way, you are restored to wholeness and so "all things will come to you.

Eckhart Tolle

#67. 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

#68. That's my dream: one day, I want to standing on the stage on Broadway. I sing; my dancing is terrible, but I can be trained. That's my dream. That's something I really want to work on.

Tao Okamoto

#69. The Great Tao flows everywhere, to the left and to the right, all things depend on it to exist, and it does not abandon them. To its accomplishments it lays no claims. It loves and nourished all things, but does not lord it over them.

Laozi

#70. At a purely formal level, one could call probability theory the study of measure spaces with total measure one, but that would be like calling number theory the study of strings of digits which terminate.

Terence Tao

#71. Love melts the hardest hearts
Enters between the cracks

Rick Julian

#72. I was delivering pizzas at Domino's. I was 17 maybe. I liked it a lot. Just driving in the nice weather and listening to music.

Tao Lin

#73. Thousands of years from now they will use my fossil remains as an example of a mistake in the evolutionary process

Tao Lin

#74. 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

#75. Sad things are beautiful only from a distance
therefore you just want to get away from them
from a distance of one hundred and thirty years
... i'm going to distance myself until the world is beautiful

Tao Lin

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

Lao-Tzu

#77. Someone who seeks the Way doesn't look beyond himself.

Bodhidharma

#78. Loneliness can fly a helicopter through a cut-out shape
of a helicopter the same size as the helicopter
and that's it's only skill
and it isn't good enough
but it's still amazing.

Tao Lin

#79. On average, since the urge to kill myself isn't so strong that I actually kill myself, the world is worth living in.

Tao Lin

#80. The amount that she loved us was beyond her reach. It could not be quantified or contained. It was the ten thousand named things in the Tao Te Ching's universe and then ten thousand more.

Cheryl Strayed

#81. Approach the universe with Tao, And evil will have no power. Not that evil is not powerful, But its power will not be used to harm others.

Laozi

#82. 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

#83. When the great Tao is abandoned, benevolence and righteousness arise.

Laozi

#84. Enlightenment is part of everything and so our minds have to be very big to encompass all things, to understand all things - To see the tao in a grape, the act of sexuality, meditation, work, play, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, being sick and hurting.

Frederick Lenz

#85. Everything in the world finds peace - eventually.

Tao Okamoto

#86. Sam looked at the sky to see if there were a lot of stars. There seemed to be a normal amount of stars.

Tao Lin

#87. No matter how much people recognize you, or how popular you are with them, you will be unhappy unless you acknowledge yourself. True recognition does not only come from those around you or the world. It comes when you recognize and love yourself

Ilchi Lee

#88. Tao sidled up to Ryan as they approached the buffet. "Quick question," the Head Enforcer asked quietly. "What would happen if I asked Makenna out?"
With a calm he didn't feel, Ryan said, "I'd rip out your throat before the last word escaped your mouth."
Tao nodded. "Thought so.

Suzanne Wright

#89. Where self-interest is the bond, The friendship is dissolved When calamity comes. Where Tao is the bond, Friendship is made perfect By calamity.

Thomas Merton

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

Lao-Tzu

#91. Without opening your door, you can open your heart to the world. Without looking out your window, you can see the essence of the Tao. The more you know, the less you understand. The Master arrives without leaving, sees the light without looking, achieves without doing a thing.

Laozi

#92. The Tao principle is what happens of itself.

Laozi

#93. If we rely upon the tao with which we're born, we always know what is the right thing to do in any situation, the good thing not for our bank accounts or for ourselves, but for our souls. We are tempted from the tao by self-interest, by base emotions and passions.

Dean Koontz

#94. Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-conciousness. Freedom discovers man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make.

Bruce Lee

#95. Those who follow the Tao are of clear mind. They do not load their mind with anxieties and are flexible in their adjustment to external conditions.

Zhuangzi

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

Lao-Tzu

#97. Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day," I said. "But set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. Tao of Pratchett.

Jim Butcher

#98. The farther you go, the less you know.

Laozi

#99. If you awaken to this moment, the here and now, then you will know that great peace is generated from a sense of being, and from a connection with the Tao. When you clearly understand and experience the Now, you can create your own happiness through your connection with the divine, your True Self.

Ilchi Lee

#100. The Tao has no place for pettiness, and nor has Virtue. Pettiness is dangerous to Virtue; pettiness is dangerous to the Tao. It is said, rectify yourself and be done.

Zhuangzi