115 Tao Quotes

Following is our list of tao quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about tao te ching.

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Short Tao Quotes

  • Those who are right do not argue. Those who argue are not right. — Lao Tzu
  • He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still. — Lao Tzu
  • A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. — Witter Bynner
  • Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires. — Lao Tzu
  • The more you know the less you talk. — A. R. Rahman
  • The world is won by those who let it go. — Lao Tzu
  • The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long. — Lao Tzu
  • Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know. — Lao Tzu
  • Stop thinking, and end your problems. — Lao Tzu
  • If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never be truly fulfilled. — Lao Tzu

Tao Image Quotes

Embrace simplicity. Put others first. Desire little. - Lao Tzu quote

Embrace simplicity. Put others first. Desire little. — Lao Tzu

Tao Ching Quotes

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. — Lao Tzu

If you search everywhere, yet cannot find what you are seeking, it is because what you seek is already in your possession. — Lao Tzu

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 — Lao Tzu

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. - Lao Tzu

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. — Lao Tzu

When taxes are too high, people go hungry. When the government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit. Act for the people's benefit. Trust them; leave them alone. — Lao Tzu

I am good to people who are good. I am also good to people who are not good. Because Virtue is goodness. — Lao Tzu

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. — Lao Tzu

The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth. — Lao Tzu

In caring for others and serving heaven, There is nothing like using restraint. — Lao Tzu

When men lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster. — Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching Quotes

Yet mystery and imagination arise from the same source. This source is called darkness ... Darkness within darkness, the gateway to all understanding. — Lao Tzu

Free from desire, you realize the mystery, caught in the desire, you see only the manifestations. — Lao Tzu

If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. — Lao Tzu

He who has achieved this state Is unconcerned with friends and enemies, With good and harm, with honor and disgrace. This therefore is the highest state of man. — Lao Tzu

Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself. — Lao Tzu

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. — Lao Tzu

Great acts are made up of small deeds. — Lao Tzu

The world is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by interfering. — Lao Tzu

In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart. — Lao Tzu

If you want to know me, look inside your heart. — Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching Leadership Quotes

When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. — Lao Tzu

Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it. — Lao Tzu

He who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm. — Lao Tzu

When people see some things as good, other things become bad. — Lao Tzu

The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of all things. — Lao Tzu

Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself. — Lao Tzu

To understand the limitation of things, desire them. — Lao Tzu

Free from desire, you realize the mystery. — Lao Tzu

Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don't see the self as self, what do we have to fear? — Lao Tzu

Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding. — Lao Tzu

Book Of Tao Quotes

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. — Lao Tzu

A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants. — Lao Tzu

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants. A good scientist has freed himself of concepts and keeps his mind open to what is. — Lao Tzu

The Master's power is like this. He lets all things come and go effortlessly, without desire. He never expects results; thus he is never disappointed. He is never disappointed; thus his spirit never grows old. — Lao Tzu

Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things? — Lao Tzu

When there is no desire, all things are at peace — Lao Tzu

The more you know the less you understand. — Lao Tzu

If you want to be given everything, give everything up. — Lao Tzu

...the more you talk of it, the less you understand. — Lao Tzu

The more you know, the less you need. — Yvon Chouinard

Tao Wisdom Quotes

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. — Lao Tzu

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. — Mao Zedong

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment. — Lao Tzu

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. — Lao Tzu

When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you. — Lao Tzu

Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment; Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self needs strength. — Lao Tzu

"What's that?" the Unbeliever asked. "Wisdom from the Western Taoist," I said. "It sounds like something from Winnie-the-Pooh," he said. "It is," I said. "That's not about Taoism," he said. "Oh, yes it is," I said. — Benjamin Hoff

A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn't really care, wisdom does. — Benjamin Hoff

Heaven is in everything: follow the light, hide in the cloudiness and begin in what is. Do this and your understanding will be like not understanding and your wisdom will be like not being wise. By not being wise you will become wise later. — Zhuangzi

If good happens, good; if bad happens, good. — Lao Tzu

Tao Of Pooh Quotes

You'd be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are. — Benjamin Hoff

Do you really want to be happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you've got. — Benjamin Hoff

The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard - one that thinks too much. — Benjamin Hoff

But isn't the knowledge that comes from experience more valuable than the knowledge that doesn't? It seems fairly obvious to some of us that a lot of scholars need to go outside and sniff around - walk through the grass, talk to the animals. That sort of thing. — Benjamin Hoff

Everything has its own place and function. That applies to people, although many don't seem to realize it, stuck as they are in the wrong job, the wrong marriage, or the wrong house. When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don't belong. — Benjamin Hoff

While Eeyore frets ... ... and Piglet hesitates ... and Rabbit calculates ... and Owl pontificates ...Pooh just is. — Benjamin Hoff

If people were superior to animals, they'd take good care of them," said Pooh. — Benjamin Hoff

It is hard to be brave, when you're only a Very Small Animal. — A. A. Milne

When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don't belong. — Benjamin Hoff

Things just happen in the right way, at the right time. At least when you let them, when you work with circumstances instead of saying, 'This isn't supposed to be happening this way,' and trying harder to make it happen some other way. — Benjamin Hoff

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More Tao Quotes

True words aren't eloquent; eloquent words aren't true. Wise men don't need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point aren't wise. The Master has no possessions. The more he does for others, the happier he is. The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is. The Tao nourishes by not forcing. By not dominating, the Master leads. — Lao Tzu

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. — Lao Tzu

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. — Lao Tzu

Allow your softer, more intuitive, and less dominating feminine qualities to rise to the fore, so that you're surrendering rather than dominating, receiving rather than broadcasting, loving rather than fighting. — Lao Tzu

The Master observes the world, but trusts his inner vision. He allows things to come and go. His heart is as open as the sky. — Lao Tzu

Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not dominate it over them. — Lao Tzu

The master does his job and then stops. He understands that the universe is forever out of control, and that trying to dominate events goes against the current of the Tao. — Lao Tzu

The Tao is told is not the Tao. — Lao Tzu

Mystics understand the roots of the Tao but not its branches; scientists understand its branches but not its roots. Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science; but man needs both. — Fritjof Capra

The essays in The Great Taos Bank Robbery were my project to win a Master of Arts degree in English when I quit being a newspaper editor and went back to college. — Tony Hillerman

When the great Tao is forgotten, goodness and piety appear. When the body's intelligence declines, cleverness and knowledge step forth. When there is no peace in the family, filial piety begins. When the country falls into chaos, patriotism is born. — Lao Tzu

Without the tao, Kindness and compassion are replaced by law and justice; Faith and trust are supplanted by ritual and ceremony. — Lao Tzu

Why is the tao so valuable? Because it is everywhere, and everyone can use it. This is why those who seek will find, And those who reform will be forgiven; Why the good will be rewarded, And the thief who is cunning will escape. — Lao Tzu

Tao invariably takes no action, and yet there is nothing left undone. — Lao Tzu

The Tao is great. The universe is great. Earth is great. Man is great. These are the four great powers. Man follows the earth. Earth follows the universe. The universe follows the Tao. The Tao follows only itself. — Lao Tzu

When the ancient Masters said, "If you want to be given everything, give everything up," they weren't using empty phrases. Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself. — Lao Tzu

The Tao never does anything, yet through it all things are done. If powerful men and women could venter themselves in it, the whole world would be transformed by itself, in its natural rhythms. People would be content with their simple, everyday lives, in harmony, and free of desire. When there is no desire, all things are at peace. — Lao Tzu

If you can find true contentment, it will last forever. — Lao Tzu

The Tao never acts with force, yet there is nothing that it can not do. — Lao Tzu

In Conclusion

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