Lao Tzu Quotes and Sayings

• The wise student on hearing the Tao
  diligently puts it into practice.
  The average student on hearing the Tao
  keeps it one minute and loses it the next.
   
• A truly good person functions without ulterior motive.
  A moralist acts out of private desires.
   
• My words are easy to understand and easy to put into practice.
  Yet no one under heaven understands them or puts them into practice.
   
• Few things under heaven bring more benefit than
  the lessons learned from silence and
  the actions taken without striving.
   
• A great country is like the low lands
  where all the streams unite.
   
• The True Person does not wish to be great
  and therefore becomes truly great.
   
• The Tao is forever nameless.
   
• Act without striving.
  Work without interfering.
  Find the flavour in what is flavourless.
   
• Help the people live!
  Nourish the people!
  Help them live yet lay no claim to them.
  Benefit them yet seek no gratitude.
  Guide them yet do not control them.
  This is called the hidden Virtue.
   
• Whatever has been forced to a peak of vigour approaches its decay.
  This is not the way of Tao.
  And that which goes against the Tao will quickly pass away.
   
• A tree as big as a person’s embrace begins as a tiny shoot.
  A terrace nine stories high rises from a shovelful of earth.
  A journey of a thousand miles begins under your feet.