168 Taoism quotes

The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

If the Great Way perishes there will morality and duty. When cleverness and knowledge arise great lies will flourish. When relatives fall out with one another there will be filial duty and love. When states are in confusion there will be faithful servants.

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

Failure is an opportunity.

He who does not trust enough, Will not be trusted.

Act without expectation.

There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.

New beginnings are disguised as painful endings.

The words of truth are always paradoxical.

Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.

Before healing others, heal yourself.

The heart that gives, gathers.

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.

The best fighter is never angry.

From caring comes courage.

Nature is not human hearted.

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.

Great acts are made up of small deeds.

He who is contented is rich.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success.

Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.

The people are hungry: It is because those in authority eat up too much in taxes.

It is better to leave a vessel unfilled than to attempt to carry it when it is full.

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.

Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretches her fingers to touch the heavens.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Some lose yet to gain, others gain and yet lose.

The master dwells in the substantial and not in the superficial. Rests in the fruit and not in the flower.

Use the light that is within you to revert to your natural clearness of sight.

Act without striving. Work without interfering. Find the flavour in what is flavourless.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

If you look to others for fulfilment, you will never be truly fulfilled.

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

Do not look only at yourself, and you will see much. Do not justify yourself, and you will be distinguished. Do not brag, and you will have merit. Do not be prideful, and your work will endure.

One who is too insistent on his own views, finds few to agree with him.

The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.

If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.

When you accept yourself, the whole world accepts you.

Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.

Without stirring abroad, One can know the whole world; Without looking out of the window One can see the way of heaven. The further one goes the less one knows.

There is no disaster greater than not being content.

If you blame someone else, there is no end to the blame.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

Violence, even well-intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself.

Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

Surrender your self-interest. Love others as much as you love yourself. Then you can be entrusted with all things under heaven.

Love is a decision. Not an emotion.

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.

Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.

A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.

Love is the greatest link that we have with those who have temporarily left us.

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus, goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus, honesty is attained.

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Love is a decision, not an emotion or feeling, that if made from the heart will outlast anything.

The best way to keep love is to give it wings.

The power of love is in its ability to connect and unite us, to bring us closer to each other and to ourselves.

The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

The heart that loves is always young.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Who acts in stillness finds stillness in his life.

If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them

Man’s enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself.

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

Confidence is the greatest friend.

Few things under heaven bring more benefit than the lessons learned from silence and the actions taken without striving.

When there is silence one finds the anchor of the universe within oneself.

Remind yourself daily, there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself.

Wasting energy to obtain rare objects only impedes one’s growth.

The soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong.

When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready… The teacher will Disappear.

He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.

Silence is a source of great strength.

Knowledge is a treasure, but the practice is the key to it.

A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

Simplicity has no name is free of desires. Being free of desires it is tranquil. And the world will be at peace of its own accord.

He who talks more is sooner exhausted.

If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.

When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, and dignified as a king. Immersed in wonder, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.

Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.

Life is going forth; death is returning home.

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.

A man with outward courage dares to die: a man with inner courage dares to live.

All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. Humility gives it its power.

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it

One cannot reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.

Make your heart like a lake with a calm still surface and great depths of kindness.

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.

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself?

Be the chief but never the lord.

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’

The best of all leaders is the one who helps people so that eventually they don’t need him.

When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be than to follow the duty of another, however, well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it never sins.

To lead people, walk behind them.

He, who tries to shine, dims his own light.

If we could renounce our sageness and discard our wisdom, it would be better for the people a hundredfold.

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.

The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honoured by all in the world, like a flower waving its head or else he disappears into the silent forest.

The ruler attains wholeness in the correct governance of the people.

The True Person governs by emptying the heart of desire and filling the belly with food, weakening ambitions and strengthening bones.

For the wise man looks into space and he knows there are no limited dimensions.

When virtue is lost, benevolence appears, when benevolence is lost right conduct appears when right conduct is lost, expedience appears. Expediency is the mere shadow of right and truth; it is the beginning of disorder.

Success is as dangerous as failure. Hope is as hollow as fear.

If you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it.

The ten thousand things flourish and then each return to the root from which it came. Returning to the root is stillness. Through stillness, each fulfils its destiny.

When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish.

What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.

To become learned, each day add something.

What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher. What is a bad man but a good man’s job.

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.

If I had just a little bit of wisdom I should walk the great path and fear only straying from it.

At the centre of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.

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.

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.

The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covets praise, yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.

Stop leaving and you will arrive. Stop searching and you will see. Stop running away and you will be found.

The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.

Only fools seek power, and the greatest fools seek it through force.

The True Person avoids extremes, self-indulgence, and extravagance.

A terrace nine stories high begins with a pile of earth.

The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.

Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline; simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.

Those who have the knowledge, don’t predict. Those who predict, don’t have knowledge.

Weapons are not proper instruments for gentle people; they use them only when they have no other choice. Peace and quiet are what they value. They do not glory in victory.

The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

All things in the world come from being. And being comes from non-being.

If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich

The sage does not hoard. The more he helps others, the more he benefits himself, the more he gives to others, the more he gets himself. The Way of Heaven does one good but never does one harm. The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

What is well-rooted cannot be pulled up. What is firmly grasped will not slip loose. It will be honoured from generation to generation.

If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence.

Knowing others is to be clever. Knowing yourself is to be enlightened. Overcoming others requires force. Overcoming yourself requires strength.

Great indeed is the sublimity of the Creative, to which all beings owe their beginning, and which permeates all heaven.

He, who defines himself, can’t know who he really is.

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.

There is no greater offence than harbouring desires. There is no greater disaster than discontent. There is no greater misfortune than wanting more.

Empty yourself of everything

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.

Whoever can see through all fear, will always be safe.

Stop thinking and end your problems.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.

To see things in the seed, that is genius.

Watch your thoughts, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

To avoid disappointment, know what is sufficient. To avoid trouble, know when to stop. If you are able to do this, you will last a long time.

Time is a created thing. To say, I don’t have time, is like saying, I don’t want to.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.