Taoism Quotes

Use the light to return to clarity.

— Laozi

Act without expectation.

— Anonymous

Yielding is the manner of the Way.

— Laozi

The great image lacks shape.

— Laozi

Dignified, like a guest.

— Laozi

Those who know when to halt are unharmed.

— Laozi

The Way is ever nameless.

— Laozi

The longer you travel, the less you know.

— Laozi

All things arise in unison. Thereby we see their return.

— Laozi

Those who know when it is enough will not perish.

— Laozi

When you are one with loss, the loss is experienced willingly.

— Anonymous

What the Way is to the world, the stream is to the river and the sea.

— Laozi

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

— Laozi

What Heaven detests, who knows why? Even the sage considers it difficult.

— Laozi

Those who defeat others are strong, those who defeat themselves are mighty.

— Laozi

Let people return to making knots on ropes, instead of writing.

— Laozi

Unexpected hardship refines people; if you can accept it, both mind and body will benefit. If you cannot accept it, on the…

— Zicheng Hong

If those who give are conscious of their own generosity and those who receive feel indebted, they are no longer family but…

— Zicheng Hong

When the world is ruled according to the Way, the ghosts lose their power. The ghosts do not really lose their power,…

— Laozi

The Master doesn't seek fulfillment. For only those who are not full are able to be used which brings the feeling of…

— Laozi

Do not make them (people) weary at their work. If you do not make them weary, they will not be weary of…

— Laozi

There is another kind of wisdom, the wisdom of following - the wisdom of not taking the lead with your ego.

— Frederick Lenz

Weapons are ominous tools. They are not the noble ruler's tools. He only uses them when he can't avoid it.

— Laozi

The Chinese used the symbol of tai chi, the undifferentiated reality - no separation, no left and right.

— Frederick Lenz

We go from birth to death. Three out of ten follow life. Three out of ten follow death. People who rush from…

— Laozi

Those who are broad-minded and considerate are like the spring breeze, warm and nurturing, at show touch all being grow. Those who…

— Zicheng Hong

“It’s not about lighting up every shadow or chasing certainty. Rather, it’s learning to trust the stillness where nothing is visible—because that’s…

— Monica Laura Rapeanu

“The power-hungry wanter their followers to believe that heaven was a place to which some people - and only people - went…

— Benjamin Hoff

My own words are not the medicine, but a prescription; not the destination, but a map to help you reach it. When…

— Laozi

Even if you do no work that is particularly lofty or far-reaching, if you can shed mundane feelings, that is a great…

— Zicheng Hong

“To Taoism that which is absolutely still or absolutely perfect is absolutely dead, for without the possibility of growth and change there…

— Alan Watts

When you meet dishonest people, move them with sincerity. When you meet violent people, affect them with gentility. When you meet warped…

— Zicheng Hong

“REFUTATION OF DELUSIVE AND PREJUDICED (DOCTRINE)[FN#292] According to Confucianism[FN#293] and Taoism all sorts of beings, such as men and beasts, were born…

— Kaiten Nukariya

The substance of mind is the substance of heaven. A joyful thought is an auspicious star or a felicitous cloud. An angry…

— Zicheng Hong

In ordinary life, we are not aware of the unity of all things, but divide the world into separate objects and events.…

— Fritjof Capra

The honey doesn't taste so good once it is being eaten; the goal doesn't mean so much once it is reached; the…

— Benjamin Hoff

“The apprenticeship to passivity—I know nothing more contrary to our habits. (The modern age begins with two hysterics: Don Quixote and Luther.)…

— Emil Cioran

Those who like tranquility and dislike clamor tend to avoid people to seek quietude. They do not know that when one wishes…

— Zicheng Hong

I used to think that you could find peace and it would always be there. And there is a sense of that.…

— Wayne Dyer

Diligence means to be keen in matters of virtue and justice, but worldly people use diligence to solve their economic difficulties. Frugality…

— Zicheng Hong