Tao Te Ching Quotes

Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself. ~ Lao-Tzu

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

Earth is a divine organism
it cannot be successfully manipulated
Who attempts manipulation will encounter defeat ~ Lao-Tzu

To think, or not to think...This is the true question. ~ Bert McCoy

Oh wondrous,' murmured Lin Chung. 'Oh, water, mistress of earth, valley spirit, eternal feminine!'
'Taoism again?' Phryne leaned close to hear what he was whispering.
'From the "Tao Te Ching." The old Master should have seen this. All made by water, the female, cold, moon principle.'
'Yin,' said Phryne. 'This is the womb of the earth.'
'Indeed.' He took her hand. 'Completely foreign to all male, hot, sun creatures.'
'Like you?'
'Like me. Yang can only admire and tremble.'
'Come along.' She led him into the centre of the huge space. 'We don't want to get lost in the earthmother's insides. ~ Kerry Greenwood

If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. ~ Laozi

44. Abidement Bullshit money or basic freedoms: which is dearer? Contentment or competition: which is more valuable? Compensation or employment: which is more painful? Great coitus incurs great expense, And great wealth incurs fucking phoniness, But great abidement incurs no loss. Therefore: He who knows when to take it easy Can't be worried about that shit, And may long endure ups and downs, strikes and gutters. Tao Te Ching: 44. Contentment Fame or Self: which is dearer? Self or wealth: which is more valuable? Profit or loss: which is more painful? Great love incurs great expense, And great wealth incurs great theft, But great contentment incurs no loss. Therefore: He who knows when to stop Does not continue into danger, And may long endure. ~ The Church Of The Latter-Day Dude

So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind; Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily; Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness; Sometimes one is up and sometimes down. Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency. ~ Laozi

When I feel off, I read the 'Tao Te Ching' to get my equilibrium right. I started reading it in the eleventh grade. ~ Eddie Huang

Love melts the hardest hearts
Enters between the cracks ~ Rick Julian

I have three treasures which I hold and keep. The first is mercy; the second is economy. The third is daring not to be ahead of others. From mercy comes courage; from economy comes generosity; From humility comes leadership. ~ Laozi

Those who know don't talk. Those who talk don't know. Close your mouth, block off your senses, blunt your sharpness, untie your knots, soften your glare, settle your dust. This is the primal identity. Be like the Tao. It can't be approached or withdrawn from, benefited or harmed, honored or brought into disgrace. It gives itself up continually. That is why it endures. ~ Lao-Tzu

The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao. ~ Laozi

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Tao is both named and nameless. As nameless it is the origin of all things; as named it is the Mother of 10,000 things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery; ever desiring, one sees only the manifestations. And the mystery itself is the doorway to all understanding. ~ Wayne W. Dyer

Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking. ~ Laozi

The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long. ~ Lao-Tzu

Emptiness appears barren
yet is infinite fullness ~ Lao-Tzu

He who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm. ~ Laozi

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

Two names emerge from a single origin and both are called mysterious. ~ Lao-Tzu

Heaven and earth
begin in the unnamed:
name's the mother
of the ten thousand things. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Too many words cause exhaustion
[In the mind or from the mouth]
Better to abide in stillness ~ Lao-Tzu

In the pursuit of Knowledge, every day something is added. In the practice of the Way, every day something is dropped. Less and less do you need to force things, until finally you arrive at non-action. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. ~ Martha Beck

The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. ~ Lao-Tzu

There is
a time to live
and a time to die
but never to reject the moment. ~ Lao-Tzu

Scholarly translations of the Tao Te Ching as a manual for rulers use a vocabulary that emphasizes the uniqueness of the Taoist "sage," his masculinity, his authority. This language is perpetuated, and degraded, in most popular versions. I wanted a Book of the Way accessible to a present-day, unwise, unpowerful, and perhaps unmale reader, not seeking esoteric secrets, but listening for a voice that speaks to the soul. I would like that reader to see why people have loved the book for twenty-five hundred years. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

A tree that is unbending, is easily broken. ~ Laozi

For the sage
Heaven and Earth join
in bestowing the greatest gifts ~ Lao-Tzu

Why are the people rebellious? Because the rulers interfere too much. Therefore they are rebellious. ~ Laozi

Lao Tzu's first paragraph in the book "Tao Te Ching" is that the Tao that can be told is not the absolute Tao.

Lao Tzu has his own logic, the logic of paradoxes, the logic of life.

To understand Tao, you will have to create eyes.

Lao Tzu believes in the unity of opposites, because that is how life is.

The Tao can be communicated, but it can only be communicated from heart to heart, from being to being, from love to love, from silence to silence.

Truth is always realized in silence. In silence, the truth is realized.

You reach to truth through silence.

All spiritual books tries to say something that can not be said in the hope that a thirst, a longing, is created in your heart to know the truth.

Tao is totality. Life exists through the tension of the opposites, the meeting of the opposites.

Lao Tzu says that the opposite poles of life are not really opposites, but complementaries.

Thinking is always of opposites. Lao Tzu says: drop the split attitude. Be simple.

And when you are simple, you do not choose. Lao Tzu says: be choiceless, let life flow.

Enjoy both poles in life, and then your life becomes a symphony of opposites.

How to drop the mind: do not choose. If you do not choose, the mind drops.

Live life as it comes - float. Float with life. Enjoy the moment in its totality,

It is to live as part of the whole, ~ Swami Dhyan Giten

A being must carry the shadow to embrace the light, and blend these vital breaths to make harmony. ~ Tao Te Ching

Great talents ripen late; the highest notes are hard to hear. ~ Laozi

A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar. ~ Lao-Tzu

Shape clay into a vessel; it is the space within that makes it useful. ~ Wayne W. Dyer

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

If you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it. ~ Lao-Tzu

The insignificant man makes demands of others, the significant man makes demands of himself. ~ Tao Te Ching

If you want to be reborn,' it is written in the Tao Te Ching, 'let yourself die.' This is what I've been having trouble with, the fact that letting go can feel, at times, like a death. Someday, I know, I will lose everything. All the small deaths along the way are practice runs for the big ones, asking us to learn to be present, to grow in faith, to be grateful for what is. Life is finite and short. But this new task, figuring out how to let go of so much that has been precious
my children, my youth, my life as I know it
can feel like a bitter foretaste of other losses yet to come. ~ Katrina Kenison

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

Stay under the radar and you'll outlast all those who strive to be recognized."
-Verse #36 - Tao Te Ching ~ Lau-tzu

Fame of self: Which matters more? Self or wealth: Which is more precious? Gain or loss: Which is more painful? ~ Laozi

> He who knows others is wise; He who knows himself is enlightened. TAO TE CHING (600 B.C.E.) ~ Harvey Spencer Lewis

When there is no desire, all things are at peace ~ Laozi

Who acts in stillness finds stillness in his life. ~ Lao-Tzu

The more you know the less you talk. ~ A.R. Rahman

According to tradition, the originator of Taoism, Lao-tzu, was an older contemporary of Kung Fu-tzu, or Confucius, who died in 479 B.C.1 Lao-tzu is said to have been the author of the Tao Te Ching, a short book of aphorisms, setting forth the principles of the Tao and its power or virtue (Te e). But traditional Chinese philosophy ascribes both Taoism and Confucianism to a still earlier source, to a work which lies at the very foundation of Chinese thought and culture, dating anywhere from 3000 to 1200 B.C. This is the I Ching, or Book of Changes. ~ Alan W. Watts

A man is born gentle and weak. At death, he is hard and stiff. Green plants are tender and filled with sap. At death, they are withered and dry. Therefore, the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death, and the gentle and yielding is the disciple of life. ~ Laozi

The more you talk of it, the less you understand. ~ Laozi

Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results. ~ Laozi

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

Observe how endings become beginnings. ~ Laozi

I let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes as common as the grass. ~ Laozi

Initially I was very drawn to the Tao Te Ching, the Taoist philosophy. It was helping me deal with the balance of these external and internal issues with my chess life. Tai chi is the martial embodiment of Taoist philosophy. Initially, I had no intention of competing in the martial arts; it was just the meditation. ~ Joshua Waitzkin

In caring for others and serving heaven,
There is nothing like using restraint. ~ Laozi

A terrace nine stories high begins with a pile of earth. ~ Laozi

With a combination of proper lighting and climate control he managed to achieve a different ecological niche in each gallery. In the African section, where the imbrications of Augustine, Mafouz and Okri lay decomposing, he grew sorghum and Dioscorea yams. In the Chinese gallery where the Tao Te Ching and countless Confucian annotations moldered, he grew rice, crab apples and barley. Over the poems of Neruda and Borges himself, he grew potatoes. Each plant in this new Eden he lovingly tainted with the virus of civilization

- from the short story "Resurrection ~ Victor Fernando R. Ocampo

To understand the limitation of things, desire them. ~ Lao-Tzu

So wise souls, leaving self behind
move forward,
and setting self aside
stay centered.
Why let the self go?
To keep what the soul needs. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

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

To only responsible choice I can make is to be love and happiness." Vincellent
"Love the world as you love yourself".Lao Tze
"The next step in mans evolution will be the survival of the wisest. ~ Deepak Chopra

If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. ~ Laozi

The best runner leaves no tracks. - Tao Te Ching ~ Christopher McDougall

When men lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster. ~ Laozi

To believe that our beliefs are permanent truths which encompass reality is a sad arrogance. To let go of that belief is to find safety. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know. ~ Lao-Tzu

It is fitting for a great nation to yield. ~ Laozi

The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of all things. ~ Laozi

Countless words
count less
than the silent balance
between yin and yang ~ Lao-Tzu

Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not. ~ Laozi

The critics often invent authors; they select two dissimilar works - the Tao Te Ching and the 1001 Nights, say - attribute them to the same writer and then determine most scrupulously the psychology of this interesting homme de lettres ... ~ Jorge Luis Borges

If you search everywhere, yet cannot find what you are seeking, it is because what you seek is already in your possession. ~ Lao-Tzu

Perfect tranquillity is the way of heaven and earth. ~ Lao-Tzu

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

When they think that they know the answers, people are difficult to guide. When they know that they don't know, people can find their own way.
If you want to learn how to govern, avoid being clever or rich. The simplest pattern is the clearest. ~ Lao Tze's Tao Te Ching

The grace of Tao
and divine nature (Te)
are not ordered
but eternal spontaneous
action of the One ~ Lao-Tzu

Standing on "tip toe", one stands not firmly. Straining in stride, one cannot walk far. Flaunting of deeds, one is unfavorably noticed. Being self-righteous, one is not respected. Boasting of self, one's merit is unrecognized. Glorifying of self, one loses the opportunity for greatness. From the viewpoint of Tao These represent imperfect Te, Valued as are filth or disease. ~ Laozi

I was her daughter, but more. I was Karen, Cheryl, Leif. Karen Cheryl Leif. KarenCherylLeif. Our names blurred into one in my mother's mouth all my life. She whispered it and hollered it, hissed it and crooned it. We were her kids, her comrades, the end of her and the beginning. We took turns riding shotgun with her in the car. "Do I love you this much?" she'd ask us, holding her hands six inches apart. "No," we'd say, with sly smiles. "Do I love you this much?" she'd ask again, and on and on and on, each time moving her hands farther apart. But she would never get there, no matter how wide she stretched her arms. 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. Her love was full-throated and all-encompassing and unadorned. Every day she blew through her entire reserve. ~ Cheryl Strayed

Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it. ~ Zhuangzi

Would you say that any one sacred book is superior to all others in the world? ... I say the New Testament, after that, I should place the Koran , which in its moral teachings, is hardly more than a later edition of the New Testament. Then would follow according to my opinion the Old Testament, the Southern Buddhist Tripitaka , the Tao-te-king of Laotze , the Kings of Confucius , the Veda and the Avesta . ~ Max Muller

We were her kids, her comrades, the end of her and the beginning. We took turns riding shotgun with her in the car. "Do I love you this much?" she'd ask us, holding her hands farther apart. "No," we'd say, with sly smiles. "Do I love you this much?" she'd ask again, and on and on and on, each time moving her hands farther apart. But she would never get there, no matter how wide she stretched her arms. 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. Her love was full-throated and all-encompassing and unadorned. Every day she blew through her entire reserve….She was optimistic and serene, except a few times when she lost her temper and spanked us with a wooden spoon. Or the one time when she screamed FUCK and broke down crying because we wouldn't clean our room. She was kindhearted and forgiving, generous and naïve. She dated men with names like Killer and Doobie and Motercycle Dan… ~ Cheryl Strayed

The power-hungry wanter their followers to believe that heaven was a place to which some people - and only people - went after death, a place that could be reached by those who had the approval of their organizations. So not even the perfected spirits were able to restore the wholeness of truth, because of interference by the human ego. ~ Benjamin Hoff

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

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

Hazel!" he yelled. "That box! Open it!"
She hesitated, then saw the box he meant. Te label read WARNING. DO NOT OPEN.
"Open it!" Leo yelled again. ~ Rick Riordan

I think I've written about family and things in 'Taipei' which could be considered Asian culture. ~ Tao Lin

When the greatness of Tao is present action arises from one's own heart When the greatness of Tao is absent action comes from the rules of "kindness" and "justice" If you need rules to be kind and just, if you act virtuous, this is a sure sign that virtue is absent Thus we see the great hypocrisy Only when the family loses its harmony do we hear of "dutiful sons" Only when the state is in chaos do we hear of "loyal ministers ~ Lao-Tzu

Material and infinite are inseparable
Appreciating their interconnectedness
is the gateway to understanding ~ Lao-Tzu

It (Tao) is eternally without desire. So, it can be called small. All things return to it, although it does not make itself their ruler. So, it can be called great. ~ Laozi

Sorry, I'd love to hang out with you but this alcohol isn't going to drink itself into incoherence and liver failure ~ Tao Lin

When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don't belong. ~ Benjamin Hoff

Worlds and particles, bodies and beings, time and space: All are transient expressions of the Tao. ~ Laozi

It seems like for the last 10 years, I've just been investing in the future. ~ Tao Lin

The Tao, when brightest seen, seems light to lack;
Who progress in it makes, seems drawing back;
Its even way is like a rugged track.
Its highest virtue from the vale doth rise;
Its greatest beauty seems to offend the eyes;
And he has most whose lot the least supplies.
Its firmest virtue seems but poor and low;
Its solid truth seems change to undergo;
Its largest square doth yet no corner show
A vessel great, it is the slowest made;
Loud is its sound, but never word it said;
A semblance great, the shadow of a shade. ~ Lao-Tzu

The spectrum of possibilities is vast and our souls long to incorporate as many as they can... We are in a constant process of learning how to think, behave, or act understanding the manifestations of Tao, the manifestation of Qi within us. ~ Natasa Nuit Pantovic

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

Tao is beyond words and beyond understanding. Words may be used to speak of it, but they cannot contain it. Tao existed before words and names, before heaven and earth, before the ten thousand things. It is the unlimited father and mother of all limited things. Therefore, to see beyond boundaries to the subtle heart of things, dispense with names, with concepts, with expectations and ambitions and differences. Tao and its many manifestations arise from the same source: subtle wonder within mysterious darkness. This is the beginning of all understanding. ~ Laozi

Therefore, it is believed that the ancestors return after a lapse of tiem as if to a general and spiritual reservoir from which they will sooner or later unite once more with human bodies and human souls as their stimuli and impulses to life. ... Such is more or less the idea of Confucianism. And the only exception is that all human beings are not viewed as equally immortal. Whoever has harmonized his nature and caused his existence to be so effective as to emanate magical powers because they can transform and act creatively, such a person will not return after death. He will not be a Kuei, but a Shen. Shen means someone divinely effective -- man as hero, who is connected with the entire cultural complex. The duration of the culture is also his duration, because his life endures in the pantheon of this culture. ~ Hellmut And Richard Wilhelm

In 1963 ... The Vatican condemned Dr. No as a 'dangerous mixture of violence, vulgarity, sadism and sex.' Ka-ching! ~ Manohla Dargis

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

Whenever there is a man of Tao his statements will look absurd. They are, because they don't fit in with your mind. ~ Osho