Lao Tzu Quotes

But hospitality must be for service, and not for show, or it pulls down the host. The brave soul rates itself too high to value itself by the splendor of its table and draperies. It gives what it hath, and all it hath, but its own majesty can lend a better grace to bannocks and fair water than belong to city feasts.

The boughs that bear most hang lowest.

People teach their dogs to sit; it's a trick. I've been sitting my whole life, and a dog has never looked at me as though he thought I was tricky.

Sincerity may be humble but she cannot be servile.

Jesus was humble when He walked this earth. He had all power, yet used all meekness.

I know the power obedience has of making things easy which seem impossible.

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever.

I don't want to be all power and muscle.

Get off your horse and drink your milk.

Of myself I must say this: I never was any greedy, scraping grasper, nor a strait fast-holding Prince, nor yet a waster. My heart was never set on any worldly goods. What you bestow on me, I will not hoard it up, but receive it to bestow on you again.

There is great power in deference. Deference works with everybody.

Even when we had new clothes, we were told not to wear them. You just didn't draw attention to yourself. Showing off was the worst thing you could do. We could put the clothes in the drawers - but not wear them.

I don't need the fame or power.

If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.

Water seeks its own level. Look at them. The Tigris, the Euphrates, the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Yangtze. The world's great rivers. And every one of them finds its way to the ocean.

I'll give my jewels for a set of beads, My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, My gay apparel for an almsman's gown, My figured goblets for a dish of wood, My scepter for a palmer's walking staff My subjects for a pair of carved saints and my large kingdom for a little grave.

I have never wanted special attention. I was only willing to do what was asked of me and what seemed necessary at the time.

No man is safe above but he that will gladly be beneath.

Great souls are always loyally submissive, reverent to what is over them: only small mean souls are otherwise.

The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendor cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate.

Humility and resignation are our prime virtues.

Above all things endeavor to breed them up the love of virtue, and that holy plain way of it which we have lived in, that the world in no part of it get into my family. I had rather they we're homely than finely bred as to outward behavior; yet I love sweetness mixed with gravity, and cheerfulness tempered with sobriety.

The more you care about the powerless, the more power you have. The more you serve those with no influence, the more influence God gives you. The more you humble yourself, the more you're honored by others.

Walking through the Capitol Building gives you a sense of how it all began here. It was reassuring to see how restrained it was. It was very humble in a way.

Can you lay your life down, so a stranger can live? Can you take what you need, but take less than you give? Could you close every day, without the glory and fame? Could you hold your head high, when no-one knows your name?