Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The sage never strives for the great, and thereby the great is achieved.
Knowing the future is the flower of the Way, and the beginning of folly.
Praise leads to weakness. Getting it causes fear, losing it causes fear.
The net of heaven is very wide in its meshes, and yet it misses nothing.
Sometimes gain comes from losing, and sometimes loss comes from gaining.
The more clever and cunning people are, the stranger the events will be.
Who has excess and supplies the world? Only the one who follows the Way.
All things in the world come from being. And being comes from non-being.
The wise trusts not only to his physical eyes - thus he can see clearly.
The real art of governing consists, so far as possible, in doing nothing.
The sage does not attempt anything very big, and thus achieves greatness.
If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never be truly fulfilled.
Kindness in thinking creates profundity. Kindness in giving creates love.
Abandon wisdom, discard knowledge, and people will benefit a hundredfold.
Rule a kingdom as though you were cooking a small fish - don't overdo it.
What Heaven detests, who knows why? Even the sage considers it difficult.
Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.
Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not.
Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.
Good men are bad men's instructors, And bad men are good men's materials.
On the one hand, loss implies gain; on the other hand, gain implies loss.
Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.
Because he (the Sage) opposes no one, no one in the world can oppose him.
Can you comprehend everything in the four directions and still do nothing?
The sage does not strive to be great. Thereby he can accomplish the great.
The truly great man dwells on what is real and not what is on the surface.
The wise leader settles for good work and then lets others have the floor.
Only I am clumsy, like drifting on the waves of the sea, without direction.
To conquer others is to have power, to conquer yourself is to know the way.
Those who defeat others are strong, those who defeat themselves are mighty.
Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it.
Abandon cleverness, discard profit, and thieves and robbers will disappear.
The Way is hidden and nameless. Still only the Way nourishes and completes.
Kind words elicit trust. Kind thoughts create depth. Kind deeds bring love.
To know others is to have knowledge. To know yourself is to be enlightened.
The heavy is the root of the light. The tranquil is the ruler of the hasty.
Rituals are the end of fidelity and honesty, and the beginning of confusion.
Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath.
There are many paths to enlightenment. Be sure to take the one with a heart.
Stretch the bow to the very full, and you will wish you had stopped in time.
Knowing honor, but clinging to disgrace, you become the valley of the world.
Heaven's net is very vast. It is sparsely meshed, yet nothing slips through.
The surest test if a person be sane, is if she accepts life whole, as it is.
What man has more than enough and gives it to the world? Only the man of Tao.
The one who can dissolve her mind will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet.
Virtue in its grandest aspect is neither more nor less than following reason.
The value comes from what is there, but the use comes from what is not there.
The sage never strives for greatness, and can therefore accomplish greatness.
Nature's way is simple and easy, but men prefer the intricate and artificial.
Keeping plenty of gold and jade in the palace makes no one able to defend it.