61 quotes
If the Great Way perishes there will morality and duty. When cleverness and knowledge arise great lies will flourish. When relatives fall out with one another there will be filial duty and love. When states are in confusion there will be faithful servants.
The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities. It is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.
interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
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.
The unwanting soul
sees what's hidden,
and the ever-wanting soul
sees only what it wants.
Two things, one origin,
but different in name,
whose identity is mystery.
Mystery of all mysteries!
The door to the hidden.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name;
this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.
Yet mystery and reality
emerge from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding.
Nothing that can be said in words is worth saying.
Disputed
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
Misattributed
I am not at all interested in immortality, only in the taste of tea.
Misattributed
When the center does not hold, the circle falls apart.
Misattributed
Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.
Misattributed
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Misattributed
When I am anxious it is because I am living in the future. When I am depressed it is because I am living in the past.
Misattributed
An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox
Misattributed
What I hear, I forget. What I say, I remember. What I do, I understand.
Misattributed
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.
Misattributed
The mark of a moderate man
is freedom from his own ideas.
Tolerant like the sky,
all-pervading like sunlight,
firm like a mountain,
supple like a tree in the wind,
he has no destination in view
and makes use of anything
life happens to bring his way.
Disputed Ch. 59 as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
"Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. With the best leaders when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say, "We have done this ourselves."
Misattributed
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Misattributed