Quotes & Sayings About Taoism

The one who is filled by virtue is like a newborn baby. — Laozi

Just as when water is frozen in to a form as ice and then melts - so at the time of death, there is no death. The spirit simply changes form. — Frederick Lenz

Why did the ancients praise the Way? Did they not say it was because you find what you seek and are saved from your wrongdoings? — Laozi

But a gentleman may embrace a doctrine without necessarily wearing the garb that goes with it, and he may wear the garb without necessarily comprehending the doctrine. — Zhuangzi

In the West the wise are usually thought of as leaders. In the East, the wise are very often though of as followers. — Frederick Lenz

The Spirit Tower has its guardian, but unless it understands who its guardian is, it cannot be guarded. — Zhuangzi

Man may rest in the eternal fitness; he may abide in the everlasting; and roam from the beginning to the end of all creation. He may bring his nature to a condition of ONE, he may nourish his strength; he may harmonise his virtue, and so put himself into partnership with God. — Zhuangzi

Intellectual knowledge exists in and of the brain.
Because the brain is part of the body, which must one day expire, this collection of facts, however large and impressive, will expire as well.
Insight, however, is a function of the spirit.
Because your spirit follows you through cycle after cycle of life, death, and rebirth, you have the opportunity of cultivating insight in an ongoing fashion.
Refined over time, insight becomes pure, constant, and unwavering.
This is the beginning of immortality. — Lao-Tzu

All things such as grass and trees are soft and supple in life. At their death they are withered and dry. — Laozi

Soil with a lot of manure in it produces abundant crops; water that is too clear has no fish. Therefore, enlightened people should maintain the capacity to accept impurities and should not be solitary perfectionists. — Zicheng Hong

To have enough of enough is always enough. — Laozi

Heavy is the root of light. — Laozi

If you know that whatever is made inevitable breaks down, you needn't seek too hard for achievement. If you know that all living beings inevitably die, you needn't work too hard on health lore. — Zicheng Hong

The supreme rulers are hardly known by their subjects. The lesser are loved and praised. The even lesser are feared. The least are despised. — Laozi

The power-hungry wanter their followers to believe that heaven was a place to which some people - and only people - went after death, a place that could be reached by those who had the approval of their organizations. So not even the perfected spirits were able to restore the wholeness of truth, because of interference by the human ego. — Benjamin Hoff

The ku-magic is a very ancient magic. It predates Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. — Laurence Yep

The most able seems clumsy. — Laozi

A good door needs no lock, still it can't be opened. — Laozi

Approach your own inner life with a loving quality that accepts who you are without trying to change who you are. — Laozi

To retreat after a work well done is Heaven's Way. — Laozi

Not valuing wealth prevents theft. — Laozi

Only he who has no use for the empire is fit to be entrusted with it. — Zhuangzi

Doing or not doing something - they are similar. Both involve an action and sincerity. — CLAMP

Wary, as if surrounded by strangers. — Laozi

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

Taoism means streching your being, becoming both a man and a woman and joining within yourself, to be the heavens themselves, to stretch your awareness beyond the breaking point until all opposites are reconciled within yourself. — Frederick Lenz

The high must make the low its base. — Laozi

The sage embraces the one, and is an example to the world. — Laozi

The sickness of indulging desires can be treated, but the sickness of clinging to abstract principles is hard to treat. Obstacles presented by events and objects can be removed, but obstacles presented by social principles are hard to remove. — Zicheng Hong

By not claiming to be first in the world one can rule. — Laozi

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

The Tao is told is not the Tao. — Laozi

A man who knows how little he knows is well, a man who knows how much he knows is sick. If, when you see the symptoms, you can tell, Your cure is quick.
A sound man knows that sickness makes him sick and before he catches it his cure is quick. — Lao-Tzu

The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror - going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing. — Zhuangzi

Lao Tsu doesn't seem to hold to much stock for words or phrases or teachings. — Frederick Lenz

People starve. The rulers consume too much with their taxes. That is why people starve. — Laozi

All men desire to free themselves solely from death; they do not know how to free themselves from life. — Laozi

The highest virtue is not virtuous. Therefore it has virtue. The lowest virtue holds on to virtue. Therefore it has no virtue. — Laozi

Taoism ... is the Religion of the Tao, a term meaning Path or Way, but denoting in this peculiar case the way, course or movement of the Universe, her processes and methods. In other words, Taoism is the Religion of Heaven and Earth, of the Cosmos, of the World or Nature in the broadest sense of these words. Hence we may call it Naturism. — Jan Jakob Maria De Groot

Heaven's Way is like stretching a bow. The high is lowered and the low is raised. Excess is reduced and deficiency is replenished. Heaven's Way reduces excess and replenishes deficiency. People's Way is not so. They reduce the deficient and supply the excessive. — Laozi

Grappling with fate is like meeting an expert wrestler: to escape, you have to accept the fall when you are thrown. The only thing that counts is whether you get back up. — Ming-Dao Deng

The small is easy to scatter. — Laozi

The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not worry. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences. What other body could pull an entire ocean from shore to shore? The moon is faithful to its nature and its power is never diminished. — Ming-Dao Deng

Although he travels all day, the sage never loses sight of his luggage carts. — Laozi

Before perception, before a preceiver, existence was - is. This is the consciousness that we refer to as nirvana, God, eternity. — Frederick Lenz

The Way is empty, yet inexhaustible, like an abyss! — Laozi

The most straight seems curved. — Laozi

Gradually, you were given a description of the world, a way of seeing, which is largely sexual. — Frederick Lenz

If people live in constant fear of death, and if breaking the law is punished by death, then who would dare? — Laozi

But the transformation of consciousness undertaken in Taoism and Zen is more like the correction of faulty perception or the curing of a disease. It is not an acquisitive process of learning more and more facts or greater and greater skills, but rather an unlearning of wrong habits and opinions. As Lao-tzu said, The scholar gains every day, but the Taoist loses every day. — Alan W. Watts

When two things occur successively we call them cause and effect if we believe one event made the other one happen. If we think one event is the response to the other, we call it a reaction. If we feel that the two incidents are not related, we call it a mere coincidence. If we think someone deserved what happened, we call it retribution or reward, depending on whether the event was negative or positive for the recipient. If we cannot find a reason for the two events' occurring simultaneously or in close proximity, we call it an accident. Therefore, how we explain coincidences depends on how we see the world. Is everything connected, so that events create resonances like ripples across a net? Or do things merely co-occur and we give meaning to these co-occurrences based on our belief system? Lieh-tzu's answer: It's all in how you think. — Liezi

The teachings of Osho, in fact, encompass many religions, but he is not defined by any of them. He is an illuminating speaker on Zen, Taoism, Tibetan Buddhism, Christianity and ancient Greek philosophy ... and also a prolific author. — Nevill Drury

By ethical argument and moral principle the greatest crimes are eventually shown to have been necessary, and, in fact, a signal benefit to mankind. — Zhuangzi

When the Way is lost there is virtue. When virtue is lost there is benevolence. When benevolence is lost there is righteousness. When righteousness is lost there are rituals. — Laozi

My words are very easy to understand and very easy to practice. Still, no one in the world can understand or practice them. — Laozi

Seeing the small is called clarity. — Laozi

We can say the stars are moving because we have a relative context. — Frederick Lenz

Those who have compassion when they do battle will be victorious. Those who likewise defend themselves will be safe. Heaven will rescue and protect them with compassion. — Laozi

My body is in accord with my mind, my mind with my energies, my energies with my spirit, my spirit with Nothing. — Lie Yukou

Who has excess and supplies the world? Only the one who follows the Way. — Laozi

Knowing that you have a soul bright and clear like the sun, perceiving and feeling that soul, you will realize that it is very precious and beautiful. When
you consider yourself important and precious, you will begin to feel the same way toward other forms of life and toward the world. — Ilchi Lee

What is well planted will not be uprooted. — Laozi

Excellent warriors are not violent. — Laozi

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

By moderation one can be generous. — Laozi

The sage does not strive to be great. Thereby he can accomplish the great. — Laozi

Although there are weapons for tens and hundreds of soldiers, they will not be used. — Laozi

Peace and quiet govern the world. — Laozi

If the sage wants to stand above people, he must speak to them from below. If he wants to lead people, he must follow them from behind. — Laozi

To solve a problem, you need to remove the cause, not the symptom. — Liezi

One gains by losing and loses by gaining. — Lao-Tzu

The limitations that we can see of the sexual description of reality are very apparent. Very few men attain enlightenment, even fewer women. — Frederick Lenz

By compassion one can be brave. — Laozi

Cultivate virtue in the world, and it will be universal. — Laozi

The ancients said: Hulk to be whole. — Laozi

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

Change can only exist in time. Without time there is no change. Change can only exist with a background of that which is changeless, otherwise it has no definition. — Frederick Lenz

A multitude of words is tiresome, unlike remaining centered. — Laozi

See others as yourself. See families as your family. See towns as your town. See countries as your country. See worlds as your world. — Laozi

I do not know its name. I call it the Way. For the lack of better words I call it great. — Laozi

Taoism shows us how to deal with life and death by realizing everything here is transitory but its substance is eternal: — Frederick Lenz

Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not dominate it over them. — Laozi

A person with a mind is bound to be filled with conceptions. These conceptions prevent him from knowing things directly, so a person with a mind shall never really know. — Liezi

A good wanderer leaves no trace. — Laozi

Intelligent people know others. Enlightened people know themselves. — Laozi

Taoism is the way of water. The most frequent element or symbol refered to in Lao Tzu's wrtings is the symbol of water. — Frederick Lenz

Things joined by profit, when pressed by misfortune and danger, will cast each other aside. — Zhuangzi

Those who stand on their toes are not steady. — 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

A great country is like the lower outlet of a river. It is the world's meeting ground, the world's female. — Laozi

Alow immortality to work through you. Be but a mere instrument. And that instrument should be so absorbed in the perfect perfection of existence, that it knows not even that it is absorbed. — Frederick Lenz

Those who are unswerving have resolve — Laozi

When the government is quite unobtrusive, people are indeed pure. When the government is quite prying, people are indeed conniving. — Laozi

The sturdiest virtue seems fragile. — Laozi

A man like this will not go where he has no will to go, will not do what he has no mind to do. Though the world might praise him and say he had really found something, he would look unconcerned and never turn his head; though the world might condemn him and say he had lost something, he would look serene and pay no heed. The praise and blame of the world are no loss or gain to him. — Zhuangzi

Who acts in stillness finds stillness in his life. — Lao-Tzu

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

For Lao-tzu's Taoism is the philosophical equivalent of jujitsu, or judo, which means the way of gentleness. Its basis is the principle of Tao, which may be translated the Way of Nature. But in the Chinese language the word which we render as "nature" has a special meaning not found in its English equivalent. Translated literally, it means "self-so." For to the Chinese, nature is what works and moves by itself without having to be shoved about, wound up, or controlled by conscious effort. Your heart beats "self-so," and, if you would give it half a chance, your mind can function "self-so" - though most of us are much too afraid of ourselves to try the experiment. — Alan W. Watts

I became aware that there was no barrier between what was inside and what was outside. My body was illuminated by a bright light. I heard with my eyes and saw with my ears. I used my nose as mouth and my mouth as nose. I experienced the world with the totality of my senses as my spirit gathered and my form dissolved. There was no distinction between muscles and bones. My body stopped being heavy and I felt like a floating leaf. Without knowing it, I was being carried by the wind. Drifting here and there, I did not know whether I rode on the wind or the wind rode on me. — Liezi

To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go: for just letting it go is what makes it stay. — Lao-Tzu