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> 98 quotes tagged "tao-te-ching"
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The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of creation.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 1
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Being and non-being produce each other. Difficult and easy complement each other. Long and short define each other. High and low oppose each other. Fore and aft follow each other.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 2
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Do not display your treasures or people will become envious.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 3
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It dulls the sharp, unties the knotted, shades the lighted, and unites all of creation with dust.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 4
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The space between Heaven and Earth is like a bellows; it is empty, yet has not lost its power. The more it is used, the more it produces; the more you talk of it, the less you comprehend.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 5
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It is like a vapor, barely seen but always present. Use it effortlessly.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 6
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The Master puts herself last; And finds herself in the place of authority. She detaches herself from all things; Therefore she is united with all things.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 7
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The location makes the dwelling good. Depth of understanding makes the mind good. A kind heart makes the giving good.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 8
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The sharper the knife the easier it is to dull. The more wealth you possess the harder it is to protect.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 9
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Can you focus your life-breath until you become supple as a newborn child?Tao Te Ching – Chapter 10
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We mold clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that makes the vessel useful.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 11
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The Master acts on what she feels and not what she sees. She shuns the latter, and prefers to seek the former.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 12
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What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure? He who is superior is also someone's subordinate. Receiving favor and losing it both cause alarm.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 13
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Its highest is not bright. Its depths are not dark. Unending, unnameable, it returns to nothingness.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 14
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Because their knowledge was so far superior I can only give a poor description. They were careful as someone crossing a frozen stream in winter.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 15
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All creatures in the universe return to the point where they began. Returning to the source is tranquility because we submit to Heaven's mandate.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 16
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The next best is a leader who is loved and praised. Next comes the one who is feared. The worst one is the leader that is despised.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 17
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When intellectualism arises, hypocrisy is close behind.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 18
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Throw away charity and righteousness, and people will return to brotherly love.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 19
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What is the difference between yes and no? What is the difference between good and evil? Must you fear what others fear?Tao Te Ching – Chapter 20
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Even though the Tao is intangible and evasive, we are able to know it exists.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 21
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If you want to become straight, first let yourself become twisted.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 22
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Why do we humans go on endlessly about little when nature does much in a little time?Tao Te Ching – Chapter 23
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Those who rush ahead don't get very far.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 24
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It stands alone and empty, solitary and unchanging. It is ever present and secure.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 25
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Thus the Master travels all day without ever leaving her wagon. Even though she has much to see, she is at peace in her indifference.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 26
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A good bookkeeper has an excellent memory, and a well made door is easy to open and needs no locks.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 27
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Know the white, yet keep to the black: be a model for the world.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 28
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The world is a sacred vessel and it can not be controlled. You will only make it worse if you try.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 29
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Using force always leads to unseen troubles.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 30
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The wise man values the left side, and in time of war he values the right.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 31
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If a ruler abides by its principles, then her people will willingly follow.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 32
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Those who master others are strong; those who master themselves have true power.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 33
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All things rely on it to conceive and be born, and it does not deny even the smallest of creation.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 34
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She can go without fear of being injured, because she has found peace and tranquility in her heart.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 35
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If you want something to weaken, you must first allow it to become strong.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 36
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If rulers could follow the way of the Tao, then all of creation would willingly follow their example.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 37
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The ordinary person seeks to do good things, and finds that they can not do them continually.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 38
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Heaven attained unity and became pure. The earth attained unity and found peace.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 39
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Weakness is how the Tao works.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 40
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When an average person hears of the Tao, he believes half of it, and doubts the other half.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 41
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The One gave birth to Two. The Two gave birth to Three. The Three gave birth to all of creation.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 42
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That which offers no resistance can enter where there is no space.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 43
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Which is more valuable, your possessions or your person? Which is more destructive, success or failure?Tao Te Ching – Chapter 44
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The greatest fullness seems empty, yet it will be inexhaustible.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 45
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When the world does not follow the Tao, war horses are bred outside the cities.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 46
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Without looking out your window, you can understand the way of the Tao.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 47
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One who seeks the Tao unlearns something new every day.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 48
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She understands the mind of the people. Those who are good she treats as good. Those who aren't good she also treats as good.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 49
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What is the reason for this? Because they are afraid of dying, therefore they can not live.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 50
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The virtue of Tao in nature nurtures them, and their families give them their form.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 51
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Once we have found the Mother, we begin to know what Her children should be.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 52
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The Tao goes in the level places, but people prefer to take the short cuts.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 53
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That which is well latched can not slip away.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 54
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Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak, but its grip is firm and strong.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 55
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Stop talking, meditate in silence, blunt your sharpness, release your worries, harmonize your inner light, and become one with the dust.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 56
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The more prohibitions you make, the poorer people will be.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 57
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If a government is repressive, the people become treacherous.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 58
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Those who use moderation are already on the path to the Tao.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 59
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Too much poking spoils the meat.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 60
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The female overcomes the male by the power of her position. Her tranquility gives rise to her humility.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 61
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How can those who are not good be abandoned?Tao Te Ching – Chapter 62
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Enjoy the plain and simple. Find that greatness in the small.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 63
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Things are easier to plan far in advance. Things break easier while they are still brittle.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 64
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Smart people are difficult to guide, because they think they are too clever.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 65
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Rivers and seas are rulers of the streams of hundreds of valleys because of the power of their low position.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 66
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Because it is thought of as great, the world makes light of it. It seems too easy for anyone to use.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 67
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The best generals do not destroy indiscriminately.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 68
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It is better to retreat a foot than to advance only an inch.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 69
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Yet no one in the world seems to understand them, or be able to apply what I teach.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 70
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Thinking you know is a disease. Only by recognizing that you have an illness can you move to seek a cure.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 71
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Do not meddle with people's livelihoods; if you respect them, they will in turn respect you.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 72
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The Tao of the universe does not compete, yet wins; does not speak, yet responds; does not command, yet is obeyed.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 73
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If you aren't afraid of dying, there is nothing you can not do.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 74
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When people become rebellious, the government has become too intrusive.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 75
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Living plants are flexible and tender; the dead are brittle and dry.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 76
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The Tao works to use the excess, and gives to that which is depleted.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 77
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Yet nothing is better than water, for overcoming the hard and rigid, because nothing can compete with it.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 78
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How then can we consider that as good?Tao Te Ching – Chapter 79
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Give them all of the things they want, and they will see that they do not need them.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 80
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Wise men don't need to debate; men who need to debate are not wise.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 81
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We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 11
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Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub; it is on the hole in the centre that the use of the cart hinges. Shape clay into a vessel; it is the space within that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows for a room; it is the holes which make it useful. Therefore profit comes from what is there; usefulness from what is not there.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 11
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Return is the movement of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao. The ten thousand things are born of being. Being is born of not-being.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 40
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Great perfection seems incomplete; yet its use is not impaired. Great fullness seems empty; yet its use is inexhaustible. Great straightness seems crooked. Great skill seems clumsy. Great eloquence seems silent.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 45
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The Tao is empty but inexhaustible — the ancestor of all things. Blunt the sharpness, untie the knots, soften the glare, settle the dust. Deep and still, it seems to have existed forever. I do not know whose child it is; it is older than the concept of God.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 4
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The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows — empty yet inexhaustibly generative. The more it moves, the more comes out. Better to hold to the centre than to talk too much and too often lose the thread.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 5
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Know the masculine, keep to the feminine, and be the valley of the world. Being the valley of the world, eternal virtue will never leave you, and you will return to the state of the infant.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 28
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Attain complete emptiness. Hold firm to stillness. The ten thousand things arise together; in their arising I see their return. They flourish and each returns to its root. Returning to one's roots is known as stillness. Stillness is the return to one's destiny.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 16
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The valley spirit never dies. It is called the mysterious female. The gateway of the mysterious female is called the root of heaven and earth. Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there, yet use will never drain it.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 6
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The world has a beginning — call it the mother of the world. Once you have found the mother, you can know the children. Once you know the children, return and hold fast to the mother. Your whole life you will be protected from harm.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 52
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A great nation is like a low-lying delta — the meeting place of all rivers, the feminine of the world. The feminine always overcomes the masculine through stillness; by stillness she takes the lower position. A great state, by placing itself below a small state, wins the small state over. Both gain what they seek when the greater one learns to be low.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 61
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A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and stiff. Green plants are tender and filled with sap. At their death they are withered and dry. Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death. The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 76
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Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 78
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The softest thing in the universe overcomes the hardest. That which has no substance enters where there is no space. Through this I know the value of non-action. Teaching without words, working without effort — few in the world can grasp this.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 43
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Yield and overcome. Bend and be straight. Empty and be full. Wear out and be new. Have little and gain. Have much and be confused. Therefore the sage embraces the One and becomes a model for the world. He does not put himself on display, and therefore shines. He does not justify himself, and therefore is distinguished. He does not boast, and therefore has merit. He does not contend, and therefore no one can contend with him.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 22
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Man follows earth. Earth follows heaven. Heaven follows the Tao. The Tao follows what is natural.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 25
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The best rulers: the people barely know they exist. Next best: they love and praise them. Next: they fear them. Worst: they despise them. When the best leader's work is done, the people say: 'We did it ourselves.'Tao Te Ching – Chapter 17