Tao Te Ching Quotes

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

The more you know the less you talk.

Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know.

Stop thinking, and end your problems.

The best leaders are those their people hardly know exist. 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 ... The best leaders value their words, and use them sparingly. When they have accomplished their task, the people say, "Amazing! We did it, all by ourselves!

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

If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.

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.

If you are at peace, you are living in the present.

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

If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.

Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it.

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

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?

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

Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.

He who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm.

If you want to be given everything, give everything up.

When there is no desire, all things are at peace

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

When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

Close your mouth, block off your senses, blunt your sharpness, untie your knots, soften your glare, settle your dust. This is the primal identity.

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

To understand the limitation of things, desire them.