Tao Te Ching Quotes

“When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready... The teacher will Disappear.”
― Tao Te Ching

“When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Countless words
count less
than the silent balance
between yin and yang”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“There is
a time to live
and a time to die
but never to reject the moment.”
― Lao Tzu

“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, Tao Te Ching

“Shape clay into a vessel;

It is the space within that makes it useful.

Cut doors and windows for a room;

It is the holes which make it useful.

Therefore benefit comes from what is there;

Usefulness from what is not there.”
― 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 It can’t be approached or withdrawn from, benefited or harmed, honored or brought into disgrace.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.”
― Tao Te Ching

“The heart that gives, gathers.”
― Tao Te Ching, Tao Te Ching

“The hard and mighty lie beneath the ground
While the tender and weak dance on the breeze above.”
― Lao Tzu

“He who is in harmony with the Tao
is like a newborn child.
Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak,
but its grip is powerful.
It doesn't know about the union
of male and female,
yet its penis can stand erect,
so intense is its vital power.
It can scream its head off all day,
yet it never becomes hoarse,
so complete is its harmony.

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.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“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, Tao Te Ching

“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

“Who acts in stillness finds stillness in his life.”
― Lao Tzu & A J Girling - translator

“Emptiness appears barren
yet is infinite fullness”
― Lao Tzu & A J Girling - translator

“Leading people is like cooking
Don’t stir too much
It annoys the ingredients
And spoils the food”
― Rick Julian

“To know and to think we know not, is the crown. Not to know and to think we know, is the affliction.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“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. LeGuin

“It had not rained, here on these north-facing slopes. Snow-fields stretched down from the pass into the valleys of moraine. We stowed the wheels, uncapped the sledge-runners, put on our skis, and took off—down, north, onward, into that silent vastness of fire and ice that said in enormous letters of black and white DEATH, DEATH, written right across a continent. The sledge pulled like a feather, and we laughed with joy.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

“Therefore when Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is kindness.
When kindness is lost, there is justice.
When justice is lost, there is ritual.
Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the beginning of confusion.
Knowledge of the future is only a flowery trapping of the Tao.
It is the beginning of folly.”
― Lao Tsu (Gai-Fu Feng and Jane English translation)

“Quién practica el no-obrar todo lo gobierna.”
― Lao Tse

“El cielo es eterno y la tierra permanece.
El cielo y la tierra deben su eterna duración
a que no hacen de sí mismos
la razón de su existencia.”
― Lao Tzu

“En el ser centramos nuestro interés,
pero del no-ser depende la utilidad.”
― Lao Tzu

“En lo alto no es luminoso,
en lo bajo no es oscuro.
Es eterno y no puede ser nombrado,
retorna al no-ser de las cosas.
Es la forma sin forma
y la imagen sin imagen.
Es lo confuso e inasible.
De frente no ves su rostro,
por detrás no ves su espalda.”
― Lao Tzu

“Quien conoce la eternidad
da cabida a todos.
Quien da cabida a todos es grandioso.
Quien es grandioso es celestial.
Quien es celestial es como Tao.
Quien es como el Tao es perdurable.
Aunque su vida se extinga, no perece.”
― Lao Tzu

“El Tao es algo confuso e intangible.
Es confuso e intangible, pero tiene formas.
Es confuso pero brillante porque abarca muchas cosas.
Es profundo y oscuro pero contiene una esencia.
Esta esencia es verdadera.”
― Lao Tzu

“Darse cuenta de que nuestro conocimiento es ignorancia,es una noble comprensión interna.
Considerar nuestra ignorancia como conocimiento
es enfermedad mental.”
― Lao Tzu

“The name that can be named
Is not the eternal Name .
The unnameable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
Of all things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mysteries and manifestations
Arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.”
― Lao Tzu

“Colours blind the eye.
Sounds deafen the ear.
Flavours numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires wither the heart.

The Master observes the world but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open to the sky.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Quién practica el no-obrar
todo lo gobierna.”
― Lao Še

“There was something that finished chaos, Born before Heaven and Earth. So silent and still! So pure and deep! It stands alone and immutable, Ever-present and inexhaustible. It can be called the mother of the whole world. I do not know its name. I call it the Way. For the lack of better words I call it great.”
― Stefan Stenudd, Tao Te Ching: The Taoism of Lao Tzu Explained