Tao quotes:

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  • The Tao is told is not the Tao. -- Laozi
  • The Tao principle is what happens of itself. -- Laozi
  • The Tao is like a well; used but never used up. -- Laozi
  • Tao invariably takes no action, and yet there is nothing left undone. -- Laozi
  • Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not dominate it over them. -- Laozi
  • If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go. -- Laozi
  • The Tao never acts with force, yet there is nothing that it can not do. -- Laozi
  • The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. -- Laozi
  • The great Way is easy, yet people prefer the side paths. Be aware when things are out of balance. Stay centered within the Tao. -- Laozi
  • A well-frog cannot imagine the ocean, nor can a summer insect conceive of ice. How then can a scholar understand the Tao? He is restricted by his own learning. -- Benjamin Hoff
  • The master does his job and then stops. He understands that the universe is forever out of control, and that trying to dominate events goes against the current of the Tao. -- Laozi
  • Mystics understand the roots of the Tao but not its branches; scientists understand its branches but not its roots. Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science; but man needs both. -- Fritjof Capra
  • The Tao is great. The universe is great. Earth is great. Man is great. These are the four great powers. Man follows the earth. Earth follows the universe. The universe follows the Tao. The Tao follows only itself. -- Laozi
  • When the great Tao is forgotten, goodness and piety appear. When the body's intelligence declines, cleverness and knowledge step forth. When there is no peace in the family, filial piety begins. When the country falls into chaos, patriotism is born. -- Laozi
  • Embrace simplicity. Put others first. Desire little. -- Laozi
  • If you can find true contentment, it will last forever. -- Laozi
  • Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things? -- Laozi
  • Allow your softer, more intuitive, and less dominating feminine qualities to rise to the fore, so that you're surrendering rather than dominating, receiving rather than broadcasting, loving rather than fighting. -- Laozi
  • 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! -- Laozi
  • The Tao's principle is spontaneity. -- Laozi
  • Yielding is the way of the Tao. -- Laozi
  • The Tao cannot be divided, it cannot be shared -- Frederick Franck
  • The Tao of the sage is work without effort. -- Laozi
  • When the great Tao is abandoned, benevolence and righteousness arise. -- Laozi
  • The Tao which you know is not the eternal Tao -- Laozi
  • The Tao is near and people seek it far away. -- Mencius
  • The sage is sick of being sick (Tao Te Ching) -- Robert Baohm
  • The follower of Tao is always flexible and adaptable to circumstance. -- Ming-Dao Deng
  • The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao. -- Laozi
  • The scholar gains every day; the man of Tao loses every day. -- Laozi
  • Tao in the world is like a river flowing home to the sea. -- Laozi
  • With Taipei Tao Lin becomes the most interesting prose stylist of his generation. -- Bret Easton Ellis
  • The one who can dissolve her mind will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet... -- Laozi
  • Worlds and particles, bodies and beings, time and space: All are transient expressions of the Tao. -- Laozi
  • Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not. -- Laozi
  • When affirmation and negation came into being, Tao faded. After Tao faded, then came one-sided attachments. -- Zhuangzi
  • Tao is the source of both fullness and emptiness. But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness. -- Zhuangzi
  • What man has more than enough and gives it to the world? Only the man of Tao. -- Laozi
  • From now back to antiquity, its (Tao's) name has not been lost. Thereby, see the origin of all. -- Laozi
  • Then I did The Tao of Steve and that was at Sundance in 2000 where it did really well. -- Donal Logue
  • In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped. -- Laozi
  • You will ride the Tao toward the concrescence and will be able to live in the light of its anticipation. -- Terence McKenna
  • The man of knowledge acquires something new everyday, and the man of Tao lets go of something new every day. -- Laozi
  • A follower of the Way (Tao) loses something each day. Loss after loss until arriving at Non Action (Wu Wei). -- Laozi
  • The one who is conscious (in Tao) can't speak. The one who can speak is not conscious (centered in Tao) -- Laozi
  • Can you let go of words and ideas, attitudes and expectations? If so, then the Tao will loom into view. -- Laozi
  • All the fish needs is to get lost in the water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao. -- Zhuangzi
  • Once you open your heart, you will start to absorb many things that come from the source - from Tao itself. -- Henry Chang
  • When you study the Tao Te Ching, you have to use your heart to try to imagine what Tao really is. -- Henry Chang
  • Find joy and solace in the simple, and cultivate your utopia by feeling the Tao in every cubic inch of space. -- Wayne Dyer
  • To find the Tao, there is nowhere you need to search. If it is not inside you, it is not the Tao. -- Confucius
  • My idea of enlightenment is when ego and Tao are fused, and Tao is perceived as ego. Then everything happens with complete appropriateness. -- Terence McKenna
  • If you can let go of (the Tao) with your mind and surround it with your heart, it will live inside you forever. -- Laozi
  • When I feel off, I read the 'Tao Te Ching' to get my equilibrium right. I started reading it in the eleventh grade. -- Eddie Huang
  • The Tao is unpredictable to those that live according to plans. Only those who have no agenda are in harmony with the Tao. -- Laozi
  • When your mind is empty of prejudices you can see the Tao. When your heart is empty of desires you can follow the Tao. -- Lu Jun Hong
  • The three jewels of Tao: compassion, moderation, and humility. Balthasar said compassion leads to courage, moderation leads to generosity, and humility leads to leadership. -- Christopher Moore
  • When you accurately perceive the fluidity of things, you can also begin to perceive the constancy behind them: the creative, transformative, boundless, immutable Tao. -- Laozi
  • Understand this if nothing else: spiritual freedom and oneness with the Tao are not randomly bestowed gifts, but the rewards of conscious self-transformation and self-evolution. -- Laozi
  • (Those who) possessed in highest degree the attributes (of the Tao) did not (seek) to show them, and therefore they possessed them (in fullest measure)." -- Lao Tzu
  • Those who of old were good practicers of Tao did not use it to make people bright, but rather used it to make them simple. -- Laozi
  • Those who follow the Tao are of clear mind. They do not load their mind with anxieties and are flexible in their adjustment to external conditions. -- Zhuangzi
  • Many sections are taken up with political discussions and how the way of the ruler, the merchant, the householder, and the army interact with the Tao. -- Frederick Lenz
  • I don't own a scale, and Tao banned the word 'fat' from our house. If we eat too much, we say, 'I feel clogged up.' -- Olivia Wilde
  • Force is followed by loss of strength. This is not the way of the Tao. That which goes against the Tao comes to an early end. -- Laozi
  • But if you do not have the Tao yourself, what business have you spending your time in vain efforts to bring corrupt politicians into the right path? -- Confucius
  • Approach the universe with Tao, And evil will have no power. Not that evil is not powerful, But its power will not be used to harm others. -- Laozi
  • Tao is beyond words and beyond things. It is not expressed either in word or in silence. Where there is no longer word or silence Tao is apprehended. -- Zhuangzi
  • (The Tao) is always present and always available. . . . If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere, even in the most ordinary things. -- Laozi
  • We may be floating on Tao, but there is nothing wrong with steering. If Tao is like a river, it is certainly good to know where the rocks are. -- Ming-Dao Deng
  • Change,connectivity,and learning to live well with others and with Nature and her ways will be the features of the world when seen through the eye of Tao. -- Ilchi Lee
  • To exercise no-thought and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in Tao. To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining Tao. -- Zhuangzi
  • The Tao has no place for pettiness, and nor has Virtue. Pettiness is dangerous to Virtue; pettiness is dangerous to the Tao. It is said, rectify yourself and be done. -- Zhuangzi
  • It means that Tao doesn't force or interfere with things, but lets them work in their own way, to produce results naturally. Then whatever needs to be done is done. -- Benjamin Hoff
  • Only the intelligent knows how to identify all things as one. . . . When one is at ease with himself, one is near Tao. This is to let Nature take its own course. -- Zhuangzi
  • It (Tao) is eternally without desire. So, it can be called small. All things return to it, although it does not make itself their ruler. So, it can be called great. -- Laozi
  • Tao can be used by anybody, but it does not beling to anyone. It is just like air; everyone can breathe the air, but no one can claim ownership of the air. -- Henry Chang
  • If this seems complex, the reason is because Tao is both simple and complex. It is complex when we try to understand it, and simple when we allow ourselves to experience it. -- Benjamin Stanley Rosenthal
  • Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is. -- Lao Tzu
  • When the ancient Masters said, "If you want to be given everything, give everything up," they weren't using empty phrases. Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself. -- Laozi
  • The Tao teaches us not to intervene and interfere. The things we love we have to learn to leave alone. And the people we love we have to learn to let them be. -- Wayne Dyer
  • Marian Head is a true student of Tao. Her insightful and persuasive 'Wu-Wei' approaches for personal transformation reach our hearts with open invitation to join the 'soft' revolution and harmonious agreement for all. -- Chungliang Al Huang
  • If princes and kings could follow it (Tao), all things would by themselves abide, Heaven and Earth would unite and sweet dew would fall. People would by themselves find harmony, without being commanded. -- Laozi
  • It is too facile to say that the way to follow Tao is to simply go along with the flow of life. Sometimes, like the carp, we must know when to go it alone. -- Ming-Dao Deng
  • Does one scent appeal more than another? Do you prefer this flavor, or that feeling? Is your practice sacred and your work profane? Then your mind is separated: from itself, from oneness, from the Tao. -- Laozi
  • The Way of Tao is this: It strives not, but conquers; It speaks not, but all is made clear; It summons not, but its house is crowded; It contrives not, but the design is perfect. -- Laozi
  • What we mean by Tao is the way or course of Nature. This way has nothing good or bad, it is a mere flowing of things following the development and decline attributes of the moment. -- Jian Yang
  • There is something obscure which is complete before heaven and earth arose; tranquil, quiet, standing alone without change, moving without peril. It could be the mother of everything. Not knowing its name, I call it Tao. -- Laozi
  • As it acts in the world, the Tao is like the bending of a bow. The top is bent downward; the bottom is bent up. It adjusts excess and deficiency so that there is perfect balance. -- Laozi
  • Be in harmony with the Tao, with the basic principles of creation. To not be in harmony with that flow, no matter how hard you meditate, you will not be happy and you won't be liberated. -- Frederick Lenz
  • Unconscious of the existence of Tao, beings live supposing themselves to be separate from the universal intelligence, supposing themselves to be powerful or to be weak, thinking that they live their lives and die their deaths. -- Frederick Lenz
  • If Tao Lin had been born to Gary Shteyngart's parents and spent his early twenties slaving for pageviews at NewYorker.com, he would have written something like this, the Bright Lights, Big City of the click-here-now generation. -- Gideon Lewis-Kraus
  • When there is no more separation between 'this' and 'that,' it is called the still-point of the Tao. At the still point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things. -- Zhuangzi
  • The Tao belongs neither to knowing nor not knowing. Knowing is false understanding; not knowing is blind ignorance. If you really understand the Tao beyond doubt, it's like the empty sky. Why drag in right and wrong? -- Alan Watts
  • There's a source, there's a perennial source from which all things come forth. We call it the Godhead, Nirvana, the Tao, enlightenment. It's big; it's bright; it's perfect, as are all of its children, as are we. -- Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell
  • Water is the softest of all things, yet it is the most powerful. The ocean patiently allows all things to flow into it. It is always flexible. The Tao is not about grasping, but allowing, like water. -- Wayne Dyer
  • Perhaps the most significant thing George Lucas did in creating 'Star Wars' was to fictionalize the Tao - to spark a universe where we can talk about the Force in objective terms and show it in direct action. -- Matthew Stover
  • To regard the fundamental as the essence, to regard things as coarse, to regard accumulation as deficiency, and to dwell quietly alone with the spiritual and the intelligent - herein lie the techniques of Tao of the ancients. -- Zhuangzi
  • Lao Tsu says the way of life is ancient, timeless. It is existence which he calls the Tao - a mysterious source, beyond understanding, and all of us are a reflection, if not that source of life ourselves. -- Frederick Lenz
  • The Master views the parts with compassion, because he understands the whole. His constant practice is humility. He doesn't glitter like a jewel but lets himself be shaped by the Tao, as rugged and common as a stone. -- Laozi
  • Chanting is no more holy than listening to the murmur of a stream, counting prayer beads no more sacred than simply breathing. . . . If you wish to attain oneness with the Tao, don't get caught up in spiritual superficialities. -- Laozi
  • Who can enjoy enlightenment and remain indifferent to suffering in the world? This is not in keeping with the Way. Only those who increase their service along with their understanding can be called men and women of Tao. -- Laozi
  • What is the Tao Te Ching? Five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a God-realized being named Lao-tzu in ancient China dictated 81 verses which are regarded by many as the ultimate commentary on the nature of existence. -- Wayne Dyer
  • Mind is knowledge, meditation is non-knowledge. Mind knows, meditation experiences. Mind can only give you a certain acquaintance but not the taste. If you want the taste of the Tao you have to move to no-mind, to Meditation. -- Rajneesh
  • Frequently we're asked to come in when the Tao is conflict and crisis. We encourage people to let that Tao happen and not repress it. Especially in new age circles, people just hate conflict and try to repress it. -- Arnold Mindell
  • Every day, mindful practice. When the mind is disciplined then the Way can work for us. Otherwise, all we do is talk of Tao; everything is just words; and the world will know us as its one great fool. -- Li Ching-Yuen
  • The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; the Named is the mother of all things. -- Lao Tzu
  • One of the things the 'Tao of Travel' shows is how unforthcoming most travel writers are, how most travelers are. They don't tell you who they were traveling with, and they're not very reliable about things that happened to them. -- Paul Theroux
  • There is a true Buddha in family life; there is a real Tao in everyday activities. If people can be sincere and harmonious, promoting communication with a cheerful demeanor and friendly words, that is much better than formal meditation practice. -- Zicheng Hong
  • The Tao of Jen was very much the Tao of hiding everything that didn't look good. The Tao of Jen is wearing a cocktail dress with underwear with holes in it. The Tao of Jen is all style and no substance. -- Jen Lancaster
  • The Tao is always at ease. It overcomes without competing, answers without speaking a word, arrives without being summoned, accomplishes without a plan. Its net covers the whole universe. And though its meshes are wide, it doesn't let a thing slip through. -- Laozi
  • When humans understand Tao, we understand the Tao within ourselves, not the true Tao. Tao doesn't belong to any one or any place; Tao is natural. It doesn't matter where you go, it will always be there. No one can claim ownership of it. -- Henry Chang
  • The Great Tao flows everywhere, to the left and to the right, all things depend on it to exist, and it does not abandon them. To its accomplishments it lays no claims. It loves and nourished all things, but does not lord it over them. -- Laozi
  • Chaos is not disorder. Chaos is the totality of existence. You could call it God. You could use the term, the Tao. I like chaos. It means more to us in English. Chaos is all things, wild and wonderful, connected perfectly by the life force. -- Frederick Lenz
  • When good thing are accomplished, it does not claim (or name) them. This is Te, which is close in meaning to power or virtue. It is something within a person, and it is enhanced by following the Tao, or 'that from which nothing can deviate'. -- Laozi
  • Though (the Tao) is uncreated itself, it creates all things. Because it has no substance, it can enter into where there is no space. Exercising by returning to itself, winning victories by remaining gentle and yielding, it is softer than anything, and therefore overcomes everything hard. -- Laozi
  • Our western mind lacking all culture in this respect, has never yet devised a concept, not even a name for "the union of opposites through the middle path", that most fundamental item of inward experience which could respectably be set against the Chinese concept of Tao. -- Carl Jung
  • Tao is so important because it is connected to all the life forms - it's related to the whole universe. Nobody can say, "Tao has nothing to do with me. Why should I try to understand it?" because actually, Tao has everything to do with us. -- Henry Chang
  • The mark of a good marriage is partnership and continuing to feel inspired by your spouse. I had that with Tao. But the end is not necessarily the tragedy. Staying in a relationship that is no longer working is the tragedy. Living unhappily - that's the tragedy. -- Olivia Wilde
  • Although some popular religious texts such as the New Testament, Quran, Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, or Tibetan Book of the Dead contain interesting insights and stories, it is the Jewish religious texts such as the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures) that contain valuable information on acquiring wealth. -- H.W. Charles
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