Laozi Quotes About Life
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When life begins we are tender and weak When life ends we are stiff and rigid All things, including the grass and trees, are soft and pliable in life and dry in brittle in death So the soft and supple are the companion of life While the stiff and unyielding are the companions of death An army that cannot yield will be defeated A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind Thus by Nature's own decree the hard and strong are defeated while the soft and gentle are triumphant
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A good traveler leaves no tracks. Good speech lacks fault-finding.
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Deal with difficult tasks while they are easy. Act on large issues while they are small.
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Because he is a living divinity, when he acts, the universe acts.
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The way to use life is to do nothing through acting, The way to use life is to do everything through being.
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To have little is to possess.
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Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death. The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.
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{The cleansing of spiritual contamination} is accomplished by offering one's talent, resources, and life to the world.
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Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
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The cords of passion and desire weave a binding net around you. Worldly confrontation makes you stiff and inflexible. The trap of duality is tenacious. Bound, rigid, and trapped, you cannot experience liberation.
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The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings. He knows that he is going to die, and her has nothing left to hold on to: no illusions in his mind, no resistances in his body. He doesn't think about his actions; they flow from the core of his being. He holds nothing back from life; therefore he is ready for death, as a man is ready for sleep after a good day's work.
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Thirty spokes meet in the hub. Where a wheel isn't is where it's useful. Hollowed out, clay makes a pot. Where the pots not is where it's useful. Cut doors and windows to make a room. Where the room isn't, there's room for you. So the profit in what is, is in the use of what isn't.
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A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
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If you attach yourself to gross energies - loving this person, hating that clan, rejecting one experience or habitually indulging in another - then you will lead a series of heavy, attached lives. This can go on for a very long and tedious time.
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(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.
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Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.
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Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
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What honor can there be without humility? What heights can be reached without being low? The pieces of a chariot are useless unless the work in accordance with the whole A man's life brings nothing unless he lives in accordance with the whole universe Playing one's part in accordance with the universe is true humility So whether you're a gem in the royal court or a stone on the common path If you accept your part with humility the glory of the universe will be yours
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Why do the people think so little of death? Because the rulers demand too much of life. Therefore the people take death lightly.
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If you correct your mind the rest of your life will fall into place.
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The wise are not learned, the learned are not wise.
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Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
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Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness.
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Don't think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness.
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When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance.
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Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.
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Most of the world's religions serve only to strengthen attachments to false concepts such as self and other, life and death, heaven and earth, and so on. Those who become entangled in these false ideas are prevented from perceiving the Integral Oneness.
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Why separate your spiritual life and your practical life? To an integral being, there is no such distinction.
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Through return to simple living comes control of desires. In control of desires stillness is attained. In stillness the world is restored.
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When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
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