Quotes from Lao Tzu

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.

To perceive things in the germ is intelligence.

The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. Try to make people moral, and you lay the groundwork for vice.

The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.

Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Everyone knows this, but no one can do it.

Great acts are made up of small deeds.

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking.

Kindness in words creates confidence; kindness in thinking creates profoundness; kindness in giving creates love.

To yield is to be preserved whole.To be bent is to become straight.To be empty is to be full.To be worn out is to be renewed.To have little is to possess.To have plenty is to be perplexed.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.

Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.