Lao Tzu Quotes

“The sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.”

“Without going outside his door, one understands all that takes place under the sky.”

“He who devotes himself to learning seeks from day to day to increase his knowledge; he who devotes himself to the Tao seeks from day to day to diminish his doing.”

“To those who are good to me, I am good; and to those who are not good to me, I am also good; and thus all get to be good.”

“Recompense injury with kindness.”

“To know and yet think we do not know is the highest attainment; not to know and yet think we do know is a disease.”

“He who knows the Tao does not care to speak about it; he who is ever ready to speak about it does not know it.”

“Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.”

“The more the sage expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself.”

“The way of Heaven is to benefit, and not to injure; the way of the sage is to do, and not to strive.”

“I have three precious things which I prize and hold fast. The first is gentleness; the second is economy; and the third is shrinking from taking precedence of others.”

“There is no calamity greater than to be discontented with one's lot; no fault greater than the wish to be getting.”

“He who is content needs fear no shame. He who knows to stop incurs no blame.”

“Fame or life, which do you hold more dear?”

“When gold and jade fill the hall, their possessor cannot keep them safe.”

“The five colours make man's eyes blind; the five notes make his ears deaf.”

“Show simplicity, hold to the unadorned, lessen selfishness and have few desires.”

“Great straightness seems crooked; great skill seems clumsy; great eloquence seems stammering.”

“The great square has no corners; the great vessel is slow to be completed; the great sound is faint.”

“Misery! Happiness is to be found by its side! Happiness! Misery lurks beneath it!”

“When one with the highest excellence does not wrangle about his low position, no one finds fault with him.”

“The skilful traveller leaves no traces of his wheels or footsteps.”

“To know the unchanging rule is to be intelligent.”

“The meshes of the net of Heaven are large and far apart, but it lets nothing escape.”

“My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practise; but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practise them.”