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.
— Laozi
Belligerent Tao Wisdom quotations
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
If you search everywhere, yet cannot find what you are seeking, it is because what you seek is already in your possession.
Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.
At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.
When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.
Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment; Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self needs strength.
He who stands on tiptoe doesn't stand firm.
He who rushes ahead doesn't go far. He who tries to shine dims his own light. He who defines himself can't know who he really is. He who has power over others can't empower himself. He who clings to his work will create nothing that endures.
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.
True perfection seems imperfect, yet it is perfectly itself.
True fullness seems empty, yet it is fully present. True straightness seems crooked. True wisdom seems foolish. True art seems artless. The Master allows things to happen. She shapes events as they come. She steps out of the way and lets the Tao speak for itself.
Great acts are made up of small deeds.
If you want to know me, look inside your heart.
"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.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it.
He who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm.
A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn't really care, wisdom does.
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.
Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself.
To understand the limitation of things, desire them.
If good happens, good; if bad happens, good.
The masters of life know the way, for they listen to the voice within them, the voice of wisdom and simplicity, the voice that reasons beyond cleverness and knows beyond knowledge.
Observe how endings become beginnings.
He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.
Creating without claiming, Doing without taking credit, Guiding without interfering, This is Primal Virtue.
A great nation is like a great man:When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.
Having realized it, he admits it.Having admitted it, he corrects it.He considers those who point out his faultsas his most benevolent teachers.He thinks of his enemyas the shadow that he himself casts.
The farther you go, the less you know.
Trustable words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not trustable.
If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go.
To attain knowledge, add things every day To attain wisdom, remove things every day
No words, phrases, or sentences are capable of describing or naming the Way, because once it is named, it is a false name and has to be eliminated. Once it is eliminated, only emptiness is left. When the false is abandoned, the true emerges.