Taoism Quotes

There is no greater disaster than discontent.

Seeing the small is called clarity.

To exercise no-thought and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in Tao. To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining Tao.

If you want to be given everything, give everything up.

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

To find the Tao, there is nowhere you need to search. If it is not inside you, it is not the Tao.

Great knowledge sees all in one. Small knowledge breaks down into the many.

Approach your own inner life with a loving quality that accepts who you are without trying to change who you are.

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

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

If you worry more for others' beliefs, then you will be their slave.

The sage is not ill, because he sees illness as illness.

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.

Intelligent people know others. Enlightened people know themselves.

There is no greater fault than sensual indulgence. There is no greater misfortune than malcontent. There is no greater calamity than greed.

Returning to the source is stillness. It is returning to one's fate. Returning to one's fate is eternal.

Don't impose your will through manipulation of aggressive emotions and actions.

The more laws that are written, the more criminals are produced.

Love the whole world as if it were your self; then you will truly care for all things.

Act without expectation.

There is much meaning in the word endure. For example, when dealing with unstable human feelings and uneven pathways in life, without endurance to hold you up, you may fall into a pit in the brush.

If those who give are conscious of their own generosity and those who receive feel indebted, they are no longer family but rather strangers doing business.

Movement overcomes cold.

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

No disaster is worse than being discontented.

A sage is skilled at helping people without excluding anyone.

Can you love or guide someone without any kind of expectation?

The great Way is easy, yet people prefer the side paths. Be aware when things are out of balance. Stay centered within the Tao.

The Master doesn't seek fulfillment. For only those who are not full are able to be used which brings the feeling of completeness.

Nurture the spontaneous peaceful life.

Stillness overcomes heat.

That which offers no resistance, overcomes the hardest substances.

That which offers no resistance can enter where there is no space.

Not valuing wealth prevents theft.

Those who have come to an impasse should examine their original intentions; those who have succeeded should note where they are heading.

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.

Other people are occupied, I alone am unwilling, like the outcast.

Abandon knowledge and your worries are over.

Knowledge of the eternal is all-embracing. To be all-embracing leads to righteousness, which is majestic.

(The Tao) is always present and always available. . . . If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere, even in the most ordinary things.

When everyone in the world sees beauty, then ugly exists.

I am at peace, and people become fair by themselves.

Those who show off do not shine.

Truly, only those who see illness as illness can avoid illness.

The Tao is near and people seek it far away.

Those who boast are not respected.

The biggest in the world is small in its beginning.

Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.

True words seem false.

Make the small big and the few many.