Lao Tzu Quotes

Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress.

There is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things.

Water is the softest of all things, yet it is the most powerful. The ocean patiently allows all things to flow into it. It is always flexible. The Tao is not about grasping, but allowing, like water.

In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.

The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world. Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.

That the soft overcomes the hard, and the yielding overcomes the resistant, is a fact known by all, but practiced by few.

The weak overcomes the strong. The soft overcomes the hard. Everybody in the world knows this, still nobody makes use of it.

Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Everyone knows this, but no one can do it.

Be soft, even if you stand to get squashed.

Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong, but no one is able to carry it out in practice.

What is strong and rigid is snapped and laid low. What is flexible and soft will always prevail.

I want to be like water. I want to slip through fingers, but hold up a ship.

Water is patient; it can stagnate and let itself be coated with scum if need be. It is as gentle as the morning's dew. It is non-confrontational, even respectful, in circumventing the rocks in a stream. It makes room for everything that enters its pools. It accommodates by assuming the shape of any vessel it is poured into. And it is humble, seeking always the lowest level. Yet along with - or rather because of these adaptive, yielding properties, it is ultimately irresistible; it carves canyons out of stone.

Be like water, my friend.

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. What is soft is strong.

The Chinese say that water is the most powerful element, because it is perfectly nonresistant. It can wear away a rock, and sweep all before it.

The soft and weak can overcome the hard and strong.

That which offers no resistance can enter where there is no space.

The softest of stuff in the world, penetrates quickly the hardest, insubstantial, it enters where there is no room.

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

The softest in the world surpasses the hardest in the world.

Move with the flow. Don't fight the current. Resist nothing. Let life carry you. Don't try to carry it.

Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.

The gentlest thing in the world overcomes the hardest thing in the world. That which has no substance enters where there is no space. This shows the value of non-action. Teaching without words, performing without actions: that is the Master's way.