In the words of Lao Tzu:
Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habit.
A tree trunk the size of a man grows from a blade as thin as a hair. A tower nine stories high is built from a small heap of earth.
If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never be truly fulfilled.
The hard and stiff are death's companions. The soft and weak are life's companions.
Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not dominate it over them.
Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.
Open yourself to the truth, then trust in your natural responses, and everything will fall into place.
He who knows how to be aggressive, and yet remains patient, becomes a receptacle for all of Nature's lessons.
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
In the Way of Heaven, there is no partiality of love; it is always on the side of the good man.
Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.
The feminine values are the fountain of bliss. Know the masculine, Keep to the feminine.
The sage is sharp but does not cut, pointed but does not pierce, forthright but does not offend, bright but does not dazzle.
The Tao is unpredictable to those that live according to plans. Only those who have no agenda are in harmony with the Tao.
In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple.
Be empty. Be still. Just watch everything come and go. This is the way of Nature.
Goodness in words creates trust, goodness in thinking creates depth, goodness in giving creates love.
Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results.
The eye with which you see God is the same eye with which God sees you; one in seeing; one in knowing; one in loving.
I am good to people who are good. I am also good to people who are not good. Because Virtue is goodness.
The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.
Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Be still and allow the mud to settle.
Throw away sacredness and wisdom and people will be one hundred times happier.
Quiet your mind and stop judging and resisting and manipulating the natural way.
The superior leader keeps informed about everything but interferes hardly at all.
Clay is used to make vases, but it is the emptiness they contain that makes them useful.
Nothing on earth is so weak and yielding as water, but for breaking down the firm and strong it has no equal.
Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream.
Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness.
For all things difficult to acquire, the intelligent man works with perseverance.
Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.
The value of teaching without words and accomplishing without action is understood by few in the world.
Your own positive future begins in this moment. All you have is right now. Every goal is possible from here.
Make your heart like a lake, with calm, still surface, and great depths of kindness.
The great Way is all-pervading. It reaches to the left and to the right. All things depend on it with their existence. Still it demands no obedience.
The mature person perceives the fruitlessness of rigid, external methodologies.
The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.
Kind words elicit trust. Kind thoughts create depth. Kind deeds bring love.
Live simply and virtuously, true to your nature, drawing no line between what is spiritual and what is not.
Those who seek knowledge, collect something every day. Those who seek the Way, let go of something every day.
Those who understand others are clever, those who understand themselves are wise.
Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.
Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment; Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self needs strength.
Face the simple fact before it comes involved. Solve the small problem before it becomes big.
Without the tao, Kindness and compassion are replaced by law and justice; Faith and trust are supplanted by ritual and ceremony.
Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery, caught in the desire, you see only the manifestations.
To the good I would be good; to the not-good I would also be good, in order to make them good.
In caring for others and serving heaven, There is nothing like using restraint.
A vessel is formed from a lump of clay with care, however, it is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.
Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.
The Tao never acts with force, yet there is nothing that it can not do.
If you search everywhere, yet cannot find what you are seeking, it is because what you seek is already in your possession.
Have patience. Wait until the mud settles and the water is clear. Remain unmoving until right action arises by itself.
Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.
All men desire to free themselves solely from death; they do not know how to free themselves from life.
A good manager is best when people barely know that he exists. Not so good when people obey and acclaim him. Worse when they despise him.
A good person is the bad person's teacher. A bad person is the good person's task.
There are many paths to enlightenment. Be sure to take the one with a heart.
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the various creatures as straw dogs; the sage is ruthless, and treats others as straw dogs.
The leader is a teacher who succeeds without taking credit. And, because credit is not taken, credit is received.
He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
The Master observes the world, but trusts his inner vision. He allows things to come and go. His heart is as open as the sky.
Abandon wisdom, discard knowledge, and people will benefit a hundredfold.
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