Laozi (6th century BCE,) also Lao Tzu, Lao Jun, Tai Shang Lao-Jun, and Tai Shang Xuanyuan Huangdi, is a quasi-historical Chinese philosopher. He is long-honored in China as the father of Taoism (Daoism.) Although an obscure figure, he is the supposed author of the Tao-te Ching (Daodejing), the main text of Taoist philosophy and religious belief.
Scholars believe that the Tao-te ching (“The Way and Its Virtue” or “The Way and Its Power”) is a collection of writings by many different wise people. Consequently, the term Laozi may not be the name of a person, but an allusion to ‘the old master,’ denoting the accrued wisdom of old men and women of the culture in which Taoism began.
The Taoist school teaches quietism and a nonaggressive approach to life. Taoists believe in living life in its natural flow, what they refer to as an ‘effortless action.’
The principal source of information about Laozi’s life is a biography in the Shiji (“Records of the Historian”) by the historian Sima Qian. Writing in about 100 BCE, he had barely reliable information regarding the philosopher. Laozi was assumed a native of Quren, a village in the district of Hu in the Chu state, which corresponds to the contemporary Luyi in Henan province.
Based on its philological style and grammar, academics reckon that Tao-te ching must have been compiled in the fourth century BCE. It is a short text; perhaps nothing else of comparative length has been translated so often and so variously.
The French sinologist Max Kaltenmark wrote the biography Lao Tzu and Taoism (1969.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Laozi
Empty your mind of all thoughts.
—Laozi
Topics: Loss
Even a journey of a thousand miles starts from right under one’s feet.
—Laozi
There are many paths to enlightenment. Be sure to take one with a heart.
—Laozi
The people are hungry: It is because those in authority eat up too much in taxes.
—Laozi
Topics: Authority
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.
—Laozi
Topics: Duty
Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires.
—Laozi
To see things in the seed is genius.
—Laozi
Topics: Genius
A violent wind does not outlast the morning; a squall of rain does not outlast the day. Such is the course of Nature. And if Nature herself cannot sustain her efforts long, how much less can man!
—Laozi
Topics: Persistence
Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.
—Laozi
Topics: Discovery
When spring comes the grass grows by itself.
—Laozi
Topics: Spring
The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing; it refuses nothing. It receives, but does not keep.
—Laozi
When superior people hear of the Way, they carry it out with diligence. When middling people hear of the Way, it sometimes seems to be there, sometimes not. When lesser people hear of the Way, they ridicule it greatly. If they didn’t laugh at it, it wouldn’t be the Way.
—Laozi
Topics: Growth, People, Courage
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
He who knows others is learned; he who knows himself is wise.
—Laozi
Topics: Wisdom, Knowledge
To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.
—Laozi
Topics: Love, Courage
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: Journeys, Travel
The words of truth are always paradoxical.
—Laozi
Topics: Truth
The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.
—Laozi
Topics: Order, Justice
A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.
—Laozi
Topics: How to Live
Good words shall gain you honor in the marketplace, but good deeds shall gain you friends among men.
—Laozi
Topics: Honor
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.
—Laozi
Topics: Death, Attitude, Life
All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.
—Laozi
Topics: Little Things, Things, Beginnings
Great acts are made up of small deeds.
—Laozi
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
—Laozi
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.
—Laozi
Topics: Tourism, Travel
The sage never tries to store things up. The more he does for others, the more he has. The more he gives to others, the greater his abundance.
—Laozi
Topics: Wisdom, Abundance, Giving
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
The way to do is to be.
—Laozi
Topics: Doing, Secrets of Success
When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.
—Laozi
Topics: Respect, Confidence
A foolish man is always doing, yet much remains to be done.
—Laozi
Topics: Fools
Rushing into action, you fail. Trying to grasp things, you lose them. Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe.
—Laozi
Topics: Action, Failure
Build up virtue, and you master all.
—Laozi
Topics: Excellence, Kindness, Virtue, Goodness, Action
He who does not trust enough, Will not be trusted.
—Laozi
Topics: Trust
For all things difficult to acquire, the intelligent man works with perseverance.
—Laozi
Topics: Intelligence, Perseverance
He who knows how to be aggressive, and yet remains patient, becomes a receptacle for all of Nature’s lessons.
—Laozi
To produce things and to rear them,
To produce, but not to take possession of them,
To act, but not to rely on one’s own ability,
To lead them, but not to master them –
This is called profound and secret virtue.
—Laozi
Topics: Character
Nothing on earth is so weak and yielding as water, but for breaking down the firm and strong it has no equal.
—Laozi
Topics: Water
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: Success, Failure
He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.
—Laozi
Topics: Charity, Giving
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.”
—Laozi
Topics: Leadership
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