Pride attaches undue importance to the superiority of one’s status in the eyes of others; And shame is fear of humiliation at one’s inferior status in the estimation of others. When one sets his heart on being highly esteemed, and achieves such rating, then he is automatically involved in fear of losing his status
—Laozi
Topics: Accomplishment
Be as the still mountain; Move like the great river.
—Laozi
Topics: Great
The sage wears clothes of coarse cloth but carries jewels
in his bosom;
He knows himself but does not display himself;
He loves himself but does not hold himself in high esteem.
Thus he rejects the latter and takes the former.
—Laozi
That which is achieved the most, still has the whole of its future yet to be achieved.
—Laozi
Topics: Achievement
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.
—Laozi
Topics: Failure, Success
To lead people walk behind them.
—Laozi
Topics: Leaders, Leadership
He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.
—Laozi
Topics: Giving, Charity
The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. The more weapons you have, the less secure people will be.
—Laozi
Topics: Ethics
Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Everyone knows this, but no one can do it.
—Laozi
Topics: Water, Power
He who possess virtue in abundance may be compared to an infant.
—Laozi
Topics: Abundance
Those who know what is enough are wealthy.
Those who persevere have direction.
Those who maintain their position endure.
And those who die and yet do not perish, live on.
—Laozi
Topics: Being True to Yourself
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
—Laozi
Topics: Compassion, Service, Kindness, Thinking, Confidence, Self Confidence
Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires.
—Laozi
A man who knows how little he knows is well, a man who knows how much he knows is sick. If, when you see the symptoms, you can tell, Your cure is quick.
A sound man knows that sickness makes him sick and before he catches it his cure is quick.
—Laozi
Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.
—Laozi
Topics: Discovery
Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of unhappiness.
—Laozi
Topics: Happiness
When the superior scholar hears of Tao, he diligently practises it. When the average scholar hears of Tao, he sometimes retains it, sometimes loses it. When the inferior scholar hears of Tao, he loudly laughs at it. Were it not thus ridiculed, it would not be worthy of the name of Tao.
—Laozi
Topics: Wisdom
The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing; it refuses nothing. It receives, but does not keep.
—Laozi
When rich speculators prosper while farmers lose their land; when government officials spend money on weapons instead of cures; when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible while the poor have nowhere to turn-all this is robbery and chaos.
—Laozi
Topics: Justice
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants.
—Laozi
Topics: Travel, Journeys
The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.
—Laozi
Topics: Order, Justice
Freedom from desire leads to inner peace.
—Laozi
He who knows others is clever; He who knows himself has discernment.
—Laozi
Topics: Self-Knowledge, Identity
He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire.
—Laozi
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
—Laozi
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.
—Laozi
Topics: Discipline, Life, Action, Education, Intelligence
Empty your mind of all thoughts.
—Laozi
Topics: Loss
Of the best rulers, The people only know that they exist; the next best they love and praise the next they fear; and the next they revile. When they do not command the people’s faith, some will lose faith in them, and then they resort to oaths! But of the best when their task is accomplished, their work done, the people all remark, “We have done it ourselves.”
—Laozi
Topics: Government
He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
—Laozi
Topics: Action, Power, Self-Control, Control
He who knows does not speak.
He who speaks does not know.
He who knows others is wise.
He who knows himself is enlightened.
He who conquers others has physical strength,
He who conquers himself is strong.
—Laozi
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Zhuang Zhou Chinese Taoist Philosopher
- Confucius Chinese Philosopher
- Sun Tzu Chinese Military Leader
- Jianzhi Sengcan Chinese-Buddhist Monk
- Lin Yutang Chinese Author, Philologist
- Pythagoras Greek Philosopher
- Anacharsis Scythian Prince
- Epictetus Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Ludwig von Mises Austrian Economist
- Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi German Philosopher
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