Taoism Quotes

Those who know are not learned. Those who are learned do not know.

Who can wait in stillness while the mud settles?

A good door needs no lock, still it can't be opened.

Thirty spokes are joined in the wheel's hub. The hole in the middle makes it useful.

The Way is eternal. Until your last day, you are free from peril.

A climb of eight hundred feet starts where the foot stands.

Ancient masters of excellence had a subtle essence, and a depth too profound to comprehend.

Why did the ancients praise the Way? Did they not say it was because you find what you seek and are saved from your wrongdoings?

The progress of the Way seems retreating.

Thorn bushes grow where armies have camped.

Use the light to return to clarity.

The separate parts make no carriage.

The unyielding army will not win.

When bitter enemies make peace, surely some bitterness remains.

Good leaders reach solutions, and then stop. They do not dare to rely on force.

Do not make them (people) weary at their work. If you do not make them weary, they will not be weary of you.

Those who have compassion when they do battle will be victorious. Those who likewise defend themselves will be safe. Heaven will rescue and protect them with compassion.

The one who is filled by virtue is like a newborn baby.

People are hard to govern. The rulers interfere with too much. That is why people are hard to govern.

Praise and disgrace cause fear.

I alone am different from the others, because I am nourished by the great mother.

Cultivate virtue in yourself, and it will be true.

To retreat after a work well done is Heaven's Way.

A good speaker does not stutter.

The sage's Way is to act and not to contend.

The small is easy to scatter.

When leading people and serving Heaven, nothing exceeds moderation.

Keeping plenty of gold and jade in the palace makes no one able to defend it.

Searching for precious goods leads astray.

People starve. The rulers consume too much with their taxes. That is why people starve.

The Way is the source of all things, good people's treasure and bad people's refuge.

Although he travels all day, the sage never loses sight of his luggage carts.

Seal the openings, shut the doors, and until your last day you will not be exhausted. Widen the openings, interfere, and until your last day you will not be safe.

A good counter needs no calculator.

Being a model to the world, eternal virtue will never falter in you, and you return to the boundless.

Those who are unswerving have resolve

The rigid tree will be felled.

When the sage stands above people, they are not oppressed. When he leads people, they are not obstructed. The world will exalt him and not grow tired of him.

The supreme rulers are hardly known by their subjects. The lesser are loved and praised. The even lesser are feared. The least are despised.

I do not know its name. I call it the Way. For the lack of better words I call it great.

The sage embraces the one, and is an example to the world.

All things flourish, and each returns to its source.

What the Way is to the world, the stream is to the river and the sea.

Of all things, none does not revere the Way and honor virtue. Reverence of the Way and honoring virtue were not demanded of them, but it is in their nature.

He (the sage) wants all things to follow their own nature, but dares not act.

Wary, as if surrounded by strangers.

The ancients said: Hulk to be whole.

Dignified, like a guest.

When people are unsettled, loyal ministers arise.

The one who rules like the mother lasts long.