Laozi Quotes - Page 27

• Rituals are the end of fidelity and honesty, and the beginning of confusion.

  Laozi

  Honesty, Confusion, Taoism

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• Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those who are skilled (in the Tao) do not dispute (about it); the disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know (the Tao) are not extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it.

  Laozi

  Fancy, Debate, True Words

  Colin Bradshaw-Jones, Laozi, Lao Tzu (2006). “The Tao Te Ching, Eighty-one Maxims from the Father of Taoism”, p.107, Lulu.com

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• The great Way is easy, yet people prefer the side paths. Be aware when things are out of balance. Stay centered within the Tao. When rich speculators prosper While farmers lose their land; when government officials spend money on weapons instead of cures; when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible while the poor have nowhere to turn- all this is robbery and chaos. It is not in keeping with the Tao.

  Laozi

  Government, Land, Class

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• The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to Two. Two gives birth to Three. Three gives birth to all things. All things have their backs to the female and stand facing the male. When male and female combine, all things achieve harmony. Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.

  Laozi

  Hate, Men, Two

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• People who have to fight for their living and are not afraid to die for it are higher persons than those who, stationed high, are too fat to dare to die.

  Laozi

  Fighting, Economic Inequality, People

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• A vessel is formed from a lump of clay with care, however, it is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.

  Laozi

  Space, Clay, Care

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• Other people are joyous, like on the feast of the ox, like on the way up to the terrace in the spring. I alone am inert, giving no sign, like a newborn baby who has not learned to smile.

  Laozi

  Baby, Spring, Compassion

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• Don't impose your will through manipulation of aggressive emotions and actions.

  Laozi

  Taoism, Manipulation, Action

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• Treat the large as the small and the few as the many.

  Laozi

  Perspective, Treats

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• If you want to shrink something, you must first allow it to expand. If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to flourish. If you want to take something, you must first allow it to be given. This is called the subtler perception of the way things are. The soft overcomes the hard. The slow overcomes the fast. Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results.

  Laozi

  People, Perception, Overcoming

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• A man's excellence is like that of water; It benefits all things without striving; It takes to the low places shunned by men. Water is akin to Tao. . . . In all the earth nothing weaker than water, Yet in attacking the hard, nothing superior, Nothing so certain in wearing down strength: There is no way to resist it. Note then: The weak conquer the strong, The yielding outlast the aggressors.

  Laozi

  Strength, Strong, Men

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• Those who boast are not respected.

  Laozi

  Taoism, Boast

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• No thought, no action, no movement, total stillness: only thus can one manifest the true nature and law of things from within and unconsciously, and at last become one with heaven and earth.

  Laozi

  Law, Meditation, Heaven

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• Keep behind, and you shall be put in front; keep out, and you shall be kept in.

  Laozi

  Humility, Compassion, Behinds

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• By steadily disciplining the animal nature, until it becomes one pointed, it is possible to establish conscious awareness of The Eternal.

  Laozi

  Animal, Awareness, Conscious

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• Throw away sacredness and wisdom and people will be one hundred times happier.

  Laozi

  People, Spirituality, Hundred

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• A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.

  Laozi

  Love, Witty, Humorous

  "Analects of Confucius". 475–221 BC.

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• The good leader carries water for his people.

  Laozi

  People, Water, Leader

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• If princes and kings could follow it (Tao), all things would by themselves abide, Heaven and Earth would unite and sweet dew would fall. People would by themselves find harmony, without being commanded.

  Laozi

  Sweet, Kings, Fall

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• From now back to antiquity, its (Tao's) name has not been lost. Thereby, see the origin of all.

  Laozi

  Names, Taoism, Lost

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• When there is no desire, all things are at peace

  Laozi

  Inspirational, Tao Te Ching, Taoism

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• Too much success is not an advantage.
  Do not tinkle like jade
  Or clatter like stone chimes.

  Laozi

  Success, Stones, Jade

  Laozi (1997). “道德经”, Vintage

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• Knowing the bright, but clinging to the dark, you become a model to the world.

  Laozi

  Dark, Compassion, Knowing

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• Intellectual knowledge exists in and of the brain. Because the brain is part of the body, which must one day expire, this collection of facts, however large and impressive, will expire as well. {But spiritual insight transcends death.}

  Laozi

  Spiritual, Intellectual, Brain

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• Praise of power leads to weakness; Love of things leads to loss; The wise one leads by filling people's hearts; He destroys illusion and disturbs those who believe they are wise; He does nothing yet everything happens.

  Laozi

  Wise, Believe, Heart

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