Lao Tzu
Quotes & Wisdom
Lao Tzu - if he existed at all - authored one of humanity's most enduring spiritual texts with fewer than five thousand characters. The "Tao Te Ching," attributed to this semi-legendary Chinese sage, has been translated more often than any book except the Bible, its paradoxical wisdom speaking across millennia to seekers of every tradition. Whether historical figure or composite legend, Lao Tzu represents the founding voice of Taoism: a philosophy that counsels yielding over forcing, emptiness over fullness, and the profound power of doing nothing to accomplish everything. His cryptic verses continue to puzzle and illuminate anyone who suspects that conventional wisdom has reality precisely backwards.
Context & Background
The historical existence of Lao Tzu remains one of Chinese philosophy's great mysteries. Traditional accounts place him in the sixth century BCE, making him a contemporary of Confucius, but scholars have dated the Tao Te Ching anywhere from the sixth to third centuries BCE. The name itself means simply "Old Master" - perhaps a title rather than a personal name.
According to legend, Lao Tzu served as a keeper of archives in the Zhou dynasty court, where he accumulated wisdom through decades of observing human folly. Growing disillusioned with civilization's corruption, he departed westward on a water buffalo. At the frontier pass, a guard recognized the sage and begged him to record his teachings before vanishing forever. The result was the Tao Te Ching - eighty-one verses of compressed paradox.
The era that produced this text, whether historical or legendary, was China's Warring States period - centuries of brutal conflict between rival kingdoms, a time when every school of thought grappled with questions of governance, morality, and survival. Confucians emphasized ritual and social harmony; Legalists advocated ruthless state control; Mohists preached universal love. Against this backdrop of competing certainties, Taoism offered radical doubt about knowledge itself.
The intellectual climate of ancient China had developed sophisticated debates about language, reality, and governance. The Tao Te Ching enters these debates by questioning their premises. Where others sought the right way to rule, it asks whether ruling itself misses the point. Where others defined virtue precisely, it suggests that named virtue is no longer virtue.
The Tao Te Ching opens with its most famous paradox: "The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name." This isn't mystical obscurantism but a precise philosophical point. Ultimate reality - the Tao, or Way - cannot be captured in concepts or language. To name something is to limit it; the Tao is unlimited.
Yet the text proceeds to say quite a lot about this unsayable Way. The Tao operates through apparent opposites: yielding conquers force, emptiness enables function, weakness overcomes strength. Water, Lao Tzu's favorite metaphor, exemplifies these principles. Nothing is softer than water, yet nothing better overcomes the hard. It seeks the lowest places everyone else avoids. It nourishes without competing.
The concept of wu wei - often translated as "non-action" or "effortless action" - captures Taoist ethics. This doesn't mean doing nothing but rather acting without forcing, without ego-driven striving. The sage accomplishes by not competing, teaches without preaching, leads by following. Where Confucius prescribed elaborate rituals and duties, Lao Tzu suggests that naturalness requires no prescription.
Despite its mystical reputation, the Tao Te Ching addresses governance directly. Its political vision is radically minimal: the best rulers are barely known to exist. They accomplish their work without claiming credit. When their task is done, the people say "we did it ourselves."
This wasn't utopian dreaming but pointed criticism of interventionist statecraft. Lao Tzu saw ambitious rulers creating the problems they claimed to solve. Laws multiply crime; moralism produces hypocrisy; military adventures breed resentment. The more governments try to improve people, the worse people become. Better to rule a kingdom like cooking a small fish - with minimal interference.
Some scholars see in these verses a sophisticated response to China's endless wars. Where Legalists argued that only harsh laws could create order, Lao Tzu suggested that harsh laws created disorder. Where Confucians believed civilization's elaborate codes represented progress, Lao Tzu suspected they masked a fall from natural virtue.
The text's political influence proved paradoxical. Later Taoist movements sometimes inspired revolt against oppressive rulers; other times, its quietism justified withdrawal from political engagement. Emperors occasionally embraced Taoist principles to justify reducing taxes and regulations. The same verses supported activism and passivity, depending on who read them.
Lao Tzu's philosophical Taoism eventually merged with popular religious practices to become one of China's three great spiritual traditions, alongside Buddhism and Confucianism. This religious Taoism added gods, rituals, alchemy, and practices for achieving immortality - elements foreign to the Tao Te Ching's austere vision.
The text's influence extended far beyond China. Japanese Zen Buddhism absorbed Taoist concepts of naturalness and emptiness. Western readers from Arthur Schopenhauer to Ursula K. Le Guin have found in it resonances with their own concerns. Physicists have noted parallels with quantum mechanics; psychologists with therapeutic acceptance; environmentalists with ecological thinking.
This adaptability stems partly from the text's deliberate ambiguity. Its verses can be read as mystical poetry, political philosophy, personal psychology, or metaphysical speculation. Different translations emphasize different aspects. The very quality that frustrates those seeking clear doctrine enables the text to speak freshly to each generation.
The legendary Lao Tzu differs markedly from the historical Confucius, whose life is relatively well documented. Where Confucius appears as a busy educator and political advisor, frustrated by his era's moral decline, Lao Tzu emerges as a figure of serene withdrawal, his wisdom earned through observation rather than argument.
The meeting between these two sages, if it occurred, became a favorite subject of Chinese art. In traditional accounts, the young Confucius visits Lao Tzu seeking instruction about ritual. The Old Master dismisses Confucius's concerns, advising him to abandon his scholarly ambitions. Confucius departs comparing Lao Tzu to a dragon - incomprehensible, riding on wind and clouds, beyond human categories.
The water buffalo on which Lao Tzu supposedly departed westward became an iconic image in Chinese painting, symbolizing the sage's humble conveyance and his journey toward the unknown. Some legends had him traveling to India to become Buddha - a charming impossibility given their likely dates, but testimony to the perceived kinship between Taoist and Buddhist wisdom.
Whether one person, several authors, or a tradition crystallized into legend, "Lao Tzu" left humanity a gift that transcends questions of authorship. The Tao Te Ching offers not answers but a different way of questioning - an invitation to consider that perhaps the deepest truths cannot be asserted, only approached through poetry, paradox, and the wisdom of letting go.
Lao Tzu Quotes
The past has no power to stop you
Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start
Do you imagine the universe is agitated? Go into the desert at night and look at the stars. This practice should answer the question.
To hold, you must first open your hand. Let go
He who stands on tiptoe
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
Great acts are made up of small deeds.
Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.
When nothing is done,
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. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
A man is born gentle and weak; at his death he is hard and stiff. All things, including the grass and trees, are soft and pliable in life; dry and brittle in death. Stiffness is thus a companion of death; flexibility a companion of life. An army that cannot yield will be defeated. A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. The hard and stiff will be broken; the soft and supple will prevail.
She does not show herself, and therefore is apparent. She does not affirm herself, and therefore is acknowledged. She does not boast and therefore has merit. She does not strive and therefore is successful. It is exactly because she does not contend, that nobody can contend with her.
My teachings are easy to understand
New Beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.
To attain knowledge, add things everyday. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.
I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.
Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.
Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear.
He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.
Close your mouth,
Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patience to wait! Be still and allow the mud to settle.
if you want to know me, look inside your heart.
If you wish to be out front, then act as if you were behind.
Would you like to save the world from the degradation and destruction it seems destined for? Then step away from shallow mass movements and quietly go to work on your own self-awareness. If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.
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.
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
Give evil nothing to oppose
If a person seems wicked, do not cast him away. Awaken him with your words, elevate him with your deeds, repay his injury with your kindness. Do not cast him away; cast away his wickedness.
Because of a great love, one is courageous.
Mastering others is strength. Mastering oneself makes you fearless.
If there is to be peace in the world,
To understand the limitation of things, desire them.
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.
By letting go it all gets done.
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.
Success is as dangerous as failure.
If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place.
Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.
There is
all streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. humility gives it its power. if you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. if you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.
To lead people, walk beside them ...
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Knowing others is intelligence;
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.
When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everyone will respect you.
The best fighter is never angry.
If you are depressed you are living in the past.
Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
Be content with what you have;
At the center of your being
Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?
Silence is a source of Great Strength.
The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.
If you understand others you are smart.
Stop thinking, and end your problems.
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Manifest plainness,
A leader is best
Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.
Act without expectation.
Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment
If you show yourself, you will not be seen. If you affirm yourself, you will not shine. If you boast, you will have no merit. If you promote yourself, you will have no success.
Respond to anger with virtue. Deal with difficulties while they are still easy. Handle the great while it is still small.
He who acts, spoils; he who grasps, lets slip.
To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.
When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, there arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, there arises the recognition of evil.
Failure is an opportunity.
Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Perfection is the willingness to be imperfect.
One who is too insistent on his own views finds few to agree with him.
Do you want to improve the world?
To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go: for just letting it go is what makes it stay.
The world belongs to those who let go.
He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it.
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 know that you do not know is the best.
The Way to do is to be.
Loss is not as bad as wanting more.
He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.
Become totally empty
Not-knowing is true knowledge.
Colors blind the eye
The wise man is one who, knows, what he does not know.
So the unwanting soul
Your own positive future begins in this moment. All you have is right now. Every goal is possible from here.
When people see some things as beautiful,
When there is no desire,
A great nation is like a great man:
Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear.
Love is of all the passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the senses.
Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of
The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself.
There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.
We join spokes together in a wheel,
He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.