Laozi

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There is a thing inherent and natural, which existed before heaven and earth. Motionless and fathomless, It stands alone and never changes; It pervades everywhere and never becomes exhausted. It may be regarded as the Mother of the Universe. I do not know its name. If I am forced to give it a name, I call it Tao, and I name it as supreme.

老子 Lǎozi (c. 6th-5th century BCE) was a Chinese monist philosopher; also called Lao Zi, Lao Tzu, Lao Tse, or Lao Tze. The Tao Te Ching (道德經, Pinyin: Dào Dé Jīng, or Dao De Jing) represents the sole document generally attributed to Laozi.

Tao Te Ching[edit]

The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be defined is not the unchanging name （道可道，非常道；名可名，非常名）.
The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds.
The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.
A leader is best when people barely know that he exists...
Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not.
How do I know this is true?
I look inside myself and see.
A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it wants.
Without the laughter, there would be no Tao.
A journey of a thousand li starts with a single step.
The mark of a moderate man is freedom from his own ideas. Tolerant like the sky, all-pervading like sunlight, firm like a mountain, supple like a tree in the wind, he has no destination in view and makes use of anything life happens to bring his way.
The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
By not dominating, the Master leads.
  • The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be defined is not the unchanging name.
    Non-existence is called the antecedent of heaven and earth; Existence is the mother of all things.
    From eternal non-existence, therefore, we serenely observe the mysterious beginning of the Universe; From eternal existence we clearly see the apparent distinctions.
    These two are the same in source and become different when manifested.
    This sameness is called profundity. Infinite profundity is the gate whence comes the beginning of all parts of the Universe.
    • Ch. 1, as translated by Ch'u Ta-Kao (1904)
    • Also as Tao called Tao is not Tao.
  • 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 beginning of heaven and earth.
    The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
    Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
    Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
    These two spring from the same source but differ in name;
    this appears as darkness.
    Darkness within darkness.
    The gate to all mystery.
    • Ch. 1, Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English (1972)
  • The tao that can be told
    is not the eternal Tao
    The name that can be named
    is not the eternal Name.
    The unnameable is the eternally real.
    Naming is the origin
    of all particular things.
    Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
    Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
    Yet mystery and manifestations
    arise from the same source.
    This source is called darkness.
    Darkness within darkness.
    The gateway to all understanding.
  • The tao that can be described
    is not the eternal Tao.
    The name that can be spoken
    is not the eternal Name.
    The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
    The named is the mother of creation.
    Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
    By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.
    Yet mystery and reality
    emerge from the same source.
    This source is called darkness.
    Darkness born from darkness.
    The beginning of all understanding.
  • The way you can go
    isn't the real way.
    The name you can say
    isn't the real name.
    Heaven and earth
    begin in the unnamed:
    name's the mother
    of the ten thousand things.
    So the unwanting soul
    sees what's hidden,
    and the ever-wanting soul
    sees only what it wants.
    Two things, one origin,
    but different in name,
    whose identity is mystery.
    Mystery of all mysteries!
    The door to the hidden.
  • A way can be a guide but not a fixed path
    names can be given but not permanent labels
    Nonbeing is called the beginning of heaven and earth
    being is called the mother of all things
    Always passionless thereby observe the subtle
    ever intent thereby observe the apparent
    These two come from the same source but differ in name
    both are considered mysteries
    The mystery of mysteries is the gateway of marvels
  • The Tao is like a well:
    used but never used up.
    It is like the eternal void:
    filled with infinite possibilities.

    It is hidden but always present.
    I don't know who gave birth to it.
    It is older than God.

    • Ch. 4, as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
  • The Tao is like a bellows:
    it is empty yet infinitely capable.
    The more you use it, the more it produces;
    the more you talk of it, the less you understand.
    • Ch. 5, as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
  • The universe is deathless; Is deathless because, having no finite self, it stays infinite. A sound man by not advancing himself stays the further ahead of himself, By not confining himself to himself sustains himself outside himself: By never being an end in himself he endlessly becomes himself.
    • Ch. 7
  • Thirty spokes unite at the single hub;
    It is the empty space which makes the wheel useful.
    Mold clay to form a bowl;
    It is the empty space which makes the bowl useful.
    Cut out windows and doors;
    It is the empty space which makes the room useful.
    • Ch. 11
  • A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. Fail to honor people, They fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aims fulfilled, they will all say, "We did this ourselves."
    • Ch. 17
  • Since before time and space were,
    the Tao is.
    It is beyond is and is not.
    How do I know this is true?
    I look inside myself and see.
    • Ch. 21, as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
  • There is a thing inherent and natural,
    Which existed before heaven and earth.
    Motionless and fathomless,
    It stands alone and never changes;
    It pervades everywhere and never becomes exhausted.
    It may be regarded as the Mother of the Universe.
    I do not know its name. If I am forced to give it a name, I call it Tao, and I name it as supreme.
    • Ch. 25, as translated by Ch'u Ta-Kao (1904)
  • A good traveler has no fixed plans
    and is not intent upon arriving.
    A good artist lets his intuition
    lead him wherever it wants.
    A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
    and keeps his mind open to what is.

    Thus the Master is available to all people
    and doesn't reject anyone.
    He is ready to use all situations
    and doesn't waste anything.
    This is called embodying the light.

    • Ch. 27, as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
    • Variants:
    • A good traveller has no fixed plan and is not intent on arriving.
      • As quoted in In Search of King Solomon's Mines‎ (2003) by Tahir Shah, p. 217
    • A true traveller has no fixed plan, and is not intent on arriving.
  • Knowing others is intelligence;
    knowing yourself is true wisdom.
    Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
    • Ch. 33, as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
  • Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, take it and practice it earnestly.
    Scholars of the middle class, when they hear of it, take it half earnestly.
    Scholars of the lowest class, when they hear of it, laugh at it.
    Without the laughter, there would be no Tao.
    • Ch. 41
  • He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.
    • Ch. 46
  • By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try, the world is beyond the winning.
    • Ch. 48, as translated by Raymond B. Blakney (1955)
  • To attain knowledge, add things every day.
    To attain wisdom, remove things every day.
    • Ch. 48
  • Block the passages, shut the doors,
    And till the end your strength shall not fail.
    Open up the passages, increase your doings,
    And till your last day no help shall come to you.
    • Ch. 52 as translated by Arther Walley (1934)
  • He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know.
    • Ch. 56
  • The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.
    • Ch. 57
    • Variant translation: The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people will be.
  • 千里之行始於足下。
    • Qiān lǐ zhī xíng shǐ yú zú xià.
    • A journey of a thousand li starts with a single step.
      • Ch. 64, line 12
    • Variant translations:
    • A journey of a thousand [miles] starts with a single step.
    • A journey of a thousand miles started with a first step.
    • A thousand-mile journey starts from your feet down there.
      • As translated by Dr. Hilmar Klaus
  • The mark of a moderate man
    is freedom from his own ideas.
    Tolerant like the sky,
    all-pervading like sunlight,
    firm like a mountain,
    supple like a tree in the wind,
    he has no destination in view
    and makes use of anything
    life happens to bring his way.
    • Ch. 59 as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
  • Governing a large country is like frying a small fish.
    • Ch. 60.
  • When men lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster.
    • Chapter 72, translated by Gia Fu Feng
  • Wise men don't need to prove their point;
    men who need to prove their point aren't wise.
    The Master has no possessions.
    The more he does for others, the happier he is.
    The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is.
    The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
    By not dominating, the Master leads.
    • Ch. 81 as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)


Misattributed[edit]

  • I am not at all interested in immortality, only in the taste of tea.
    • From Lu Tong (also spelled as Lu Tung)
  • Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
    • Attributed to Laozi in self-help books and on social media, this quotation is of unknown origin and date.
  • What I hear, I forget. What I say, I remember. What I do, I understand.
    • This quotation has also been misattributed to Confucius.
      • Tell me and I [will] forget. Show me and I [will] remember. Involve me and I [will] understand.
      • 不聞不若聞之，聞之不若見之，見之不若知之，知之不若行之；學至於行之而止矣
  • 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.
    • This quotation's origin is actually unknown, however it is not found in the Dao De Jing.
      • 生命是一连串的自发的自然变化。逆流而动只会徒增伤悲。接受现实，万物自然循着规律发展。
  • Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.
    • Also: "Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner"
    • Also: "If you care what people think, you will always be their prisoner"
      • Appears in Stephen Mitchell's rendering into English of Tao Te Ching chapter 9; but this is an interpretation of Mitchell's which does not appear in the original text or other recognized English translations. Repeated without attribution in Gilliland, Hide Your Goat, a positive thinking book published in 2013.
  • When I am anxious it is because I am living in the future. When I am depressed it is because I am living in the past.
    • Attributed to "Jimmy R." in Days of Healing, Days of Joy (1987)[1]

Quotes about Laozi[edit]

We believe that the Daoist tradition started as a response to the excesses of civilization. That was Lao Tzu's deal anyway. ~ Oliver Benjamin
The Chinaman is not the issue here, Dudes. The issue is that the Tao Te Ching is the perfect expression of Taoism’s wu wei of life, or in the parlance of Huston Smith, a life of creative quietude in which “the conscious mind must relax, stop standing in its own light, let go” so that it can flow with the Tao (or Way) of the universe. ~ Dude De Ching
  • According to religious scholar Huston Smith, Taoism has only one basic text, the Tao Te Ching (or, in English, The Way and Its Power), a slim volume that, as Smith says, can be read in half an hour or a lifetime. Legend has it that a Chinaman by the name of Lao Tzu one day said "Enough!" (loosely translated from the Chinese), hopped on a water buffalo (possibly with rust coloration), and started heading a-way out west to Tibet.
    On his way out, someone stopped Lao Tzu and asked if he would write down the tenets of his ethos before leaving town. Being a lazy man, Lao Tzu lodged his water buffalo against an abutment long enough to write the Tao Te Ching’s 81 short verses. When finished, he kicked his water buffalo into gear and, tossing his ringer to the man, rode off into the misty horizon of legend and myth.
    Regardless of whether the legend is true, or whether Lao Tzu even really existed, the Chinaman is not the issue here, Dudes. The issue is that the Tao Te Ching is the perfect expression of Taoism’s wu wei of life, or in the parlance of Huston Smith, a life of creative quietude in which "the conscious mind must relax, stop standing in its own light, let go" so that it can flow with the Tao (or Way) of the universe.
  • Lao-tse may be regarded as the deepest thinker of Chinese antiquity.
  • Helpmeat too, contrasta toga, his fiery goosemother, laotsey taotsey, woman who did, he tell princes of the age about. You sound on me, judges! Suppose we brisken up. Kings! Meet the Mem, Avenlith, all viviparous out of couple of lizards. She just as fenny as he is fulgar. How laat soever her latest still her sawlogs come up all standing. Psing a psalm of psexpeans, apocryphul of rhyme! His cheekmole of allaph foriverever her allinall and his Quran never teach it her the be the owner of thyself.
  • The oldest known Chinese sage is Lao-Tze, the founder of Taoism. "Lao Tze" is not really a proper name, but means merely "the old philosopher." He was (according to tradition) an older contemporary of Confucius, and his philosophy is to my mind far more interesting. He held that every person, every animal, and every thing has a certain way or manner of behaving which is natural to him, or her, or it, and that we ought to conform to this way ourselves and encourage others to conform to it. "Tao" means "way," but used in a more or less mystical sense, as in the text: "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life." I think he fancied that death was due to departing from the "way," and that if we all lived strictly according to nature we should be immortal, like the heavenly bodies.
    • Bertrand Russell in The Problem of China (1922), Ch. XI - Chinese and Western Civilization Contrasted

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Chinese versions[edit]

  • Comparison Chart Chinese characters with PinYin spellings of the Wang Bi, HeShang Gong, Mawangdui A and B, Guodian texts.
  • Bamboo slips of the Guodian text Photographs of the Guodian Bamboo Slips with modern equivalents of the Chinese characters, PinYin and Wade Giles spellings, and English definitions.
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