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Quotes by Lao Tzu


New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.
– Lao Tzu

Great acts are made up of small deeds.
– Lao Tzu

When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.
– Lao Tzu

Silence is a source of great strength.
– Lao Tzu
The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, 'We did it ourselves.'
– Lao Tzu
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage.
– Lao Tzu
Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of happiness.
– Lao Tzu
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
– Lao Tzu
He who knows does not speak.
He who speaks does not know.
– Lao Tzu
He who knows others is wise;
He who know himself is enlightened.
– Lao Tzu
He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire.
– Lao Tzu
I have three treasures. Guard and keep them:
The first is deep love,
The second is frugality,
And the third is not to dare to be ahead of the world.
Because of deep love, one is courageous.
Because of frugality, one is generous.
Because of not daring to be ahead of the world, one becomes the leader of the world.
– Lao Tzu
Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.
– Lao Tzu
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
– Lao Tzu
The best [man] is like water.
Water is good; it benefits all things and does not compete with them.
It dwells in [lowly] places that all disdain.
This is why it is so near to Tao.
– Lao Tzu
The more laws and order are made prominent,
The more thieves and robbers there will be.
– Lao Tzu
The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.
Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.
– Lao Tzu
The Way of Heaven is to benefit others and not to injure.
The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.
– Lao Tzu
There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.
There is no greater guilt than discontentment.
And there is not greater disaster than greed.
– Lao Tzu
To be worn out is to be renewed.
– Lao Tzu
To have little is to possess.
To have plenty is to be perplexed.
– Lao Tzu
To know that you do not know is the best.
To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.
– Lao Tzu
To produce things and to rear them,
To produce, but not to take possession of them,
To act, but not to rely on one's own ability,
To lead them, but not to master them -
This is called profound and secret virtue.
– Lao Tzu
When armies are mobilized and issues are joined,
The man who is sorry over the fact will win.
– Lao Tzu
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.
– Lao Tzu
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