The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
– Lao Tzu
When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will
respect you.
– Lao Tzu
Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.
– Lao Tzu
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.
– Lao Tzu
If you are depressed, you are living in the past.
If you are anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace, you are living in the present.
– Lao Tzu
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you
courage.
– Lao Tzu
Stop thinking, and end your problems.
– Lao Tzu
As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people
honour and praise. The next, the people fear and the next, the people hate. When the best
leader’s work is done, the people say “We did it ourselves.”
– Lao Tzu
Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and
the senses.
– Lao Tzu
Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of unhappiness.
– Lao Tzu
A terrace nine stories high begins with a pile of earth.
– Lao Tzu
Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realise there is
nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
– Lao Tzu
People in their handlings of affairs often fail when they are about to succeed. If one remains
as careful at the end as he was at the beginning, there will be no failure.
– Lao Tzu
He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
– Lao Tzu
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.
– Lao Tzu
The way of heaven has no favorites. It is always with the good man.
– Lao Tzu
He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.
– Lao Tzu
The sage does not accumulate for himself. The more he uses for others, the more he has
himself. The more he gives to others, the more he has himself.
– Lao Tzu
At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what
you want.
– Lao Tzu
Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course? Can you step
back from your own mind and thus understand all things?
– Lao Tzu
Go to the people. Live with them, learn from them, love them.
– Lao Tzu
There is no disaster greater than not being content. There is no misfortune greater than
being covetous.
– Lao Tzu
The moral man does something, and when no one responds he rolls up his sleeves and uses
force.
– Lao Tzu
Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions
and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you
accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in
the world.
– Lao Tzu
The master observes the world but trusts his inner vision. He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.
– Lao Tzu
Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.
– Lao Tzu
What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.
– Lao Tzu
Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.
– Lao Tzu
Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will
produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions
and you will cultivate success.
– Lao Tzu
Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.
– Lao Tzu
To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
– Lao Tzu
When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will
respect you.
– Lao Tzu
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are
a leader.
– Lao Tzu
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
– Lao Tzu
There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.
– Lao Tzu
Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and
the senses.
– Lao Tzu
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
– Lao Tzu
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
– Lao Tzu
Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it.
– Lao Tzu
The best fighter is never angry.
– Lao Tzu
Do you imagine the universe is agitated? Go into the desert at night and look at the stars.
This practice should answer the question.
– Lao Tzu
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in
giving creates love.
– Lao Tzu
Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.
– Lao Tzu
Great acts are made up of small deeds.
– Lao Tzu
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for
a lifetime.
– Lao Tzu
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
– Lao Tzu
Nature is not human-hearted.
– Lao Tzu
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
– Lao Tzu
To lead the people, walk behind them.
– Lao Tzu
Respond to anger with virtue. Deal with difficulties while they are still easy. Handle the great
while it is still small.
– Lao Tzu
There is no calamity greater than lavish desires. There is no greater guilt than discontentment.
And there is no greater disaster than greed.
– Lao Tzu
The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.
– Lao Tzu
My teachings are easy to understand and easy to put into practice. Yet your intellect will
never grasp them, and if you try to practice them, you’ll fail. My teachings are older than the
world. How can you grasp their meaning? If you want to know me, look inside your heart.
– Lao Tzu
If a person seems wicked, do not cast him away. Awaken him with your words, elevate him
with your deeds, repay his injury with your kindness. Do not cast him away; cast away his
wickedness.
– Lao Tzu
Do not conquer the world with force, for force only causes resistance. Thorns spring up when
an army passes. Years of misery follow a great victory. Do only what needs to be done
without using violence.
– Lao Tzu
He who defends with love will be secure; Heaven will save him and protect him with love.
– Lao Tzu
An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.
– Lao Tzu
If the people must be ever fearful of death, then there will always be an executioner.
– Lao Tzu
Don’t think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline
and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy
toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward
into darkness.
– Lao Tzu
Some lose yet gain, others gain and yet lose.
– Lao Tzu
Failure is an opportunity. If you blame someone else, there is no end to the blame.
– Lao Tzu
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
– Lao Tzu
Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it.
– Lao Tzu
Hold on to the center and make up your mind to rejoice in this paradise called life.
– Lao Tzu
Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.
– Lao Tzu
To see things in the seed, that is genius.
– Lao Tzu
A leader is best when people barely know he exists. Of a good leader, who talks little, when
his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, “We did this ourselves.”
– Lao Tzu
Because of a great love, one is courageous.
– 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
He who possesses virtue in abundance may be compared to an infant.
– 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
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
– 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
The way of the sage is to act but not to compete.
– Lao Tzu
To yield is to be preserved whole. To be bent is to become straight. To be empty is to be
full. To be worn out is to be renewed. To have little is to possess. To have plenty is to be
perplexed.
– Lao Tzu
The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.
– Lao Tzu
He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire.
– Lao Tzu
Heaven’s net is indeed vast. Though its meshes are wide, it misses nothing.
– Lao Tzu
Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the
principle of softness overcoming hardness.
– Lao Tzu
The way of the heaven is to benefit others and not to injure.
– 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
The sage never strives himself for the great, and thereby the great is achieved.
– Lao Tzu
Tao is the storehouse of all things. It is the good man’s treasure and the bad man’s refuge.
– 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
Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.
– Lao Tzu
To become learned, each day add something.
To become enlightened, each day drop something.
– Lao Tzu
Stop leaving and you will arrive. Stop searching and you will see. Stop running away and you
will be found.
– Lao Tzu
Boasting of wealth and virtue brings your demise.
– Lao Tzu
If you understand others you are smart. If you understand yourself you are illuminated. If you
overcome others you are powerful. If you overcome yourself you have strength. If you know
how to be satisfied you are rich. If you can act with vigor, you have a will. If you don’t lose
your objectives you can be long-lasting. If you die without loss, you are eternal.
– Lao Tzu
Our enemies are not demons, but human beings like ourselves.
– Lao Tzu
Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results.
– Lao Tzu
Know glory but cleave to humiliation.
– Lao Tzu
The sage wears rough clothing and holds the jewel in his heart.
– Lao Tzu