Lao Tzu Quotes

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.