Lao Tzu Quotes

Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small. The difficult things in this world must be done while they are easy, the greatest things in the world must be done while they are still small. For this reason sages never do what is great, and this is why they achieve greatness.

Take care of what is difficult while it is still easy, and deal with what will become big while it is yet small.

Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.

Lay plans for the accomplishment of the difficult before it becomes difficult; make something big by starting with it when small.

One should be constantly looking for the broader vision.

I think long-term, not short-term.

The ablest administrators do not merely draw logical conclusions from the array of facts of the past which their expert assistants bring to them, they have a vision of the future.

The man of action has the present, but the thinker controls the future.

America looks 10 minutes ahead; Japan looks 10 years.

You want to be an alchemist so badly? Don't wait to react to the immediate problem. Plan ahead. Look at the big picture and you won't ever have to deal with that problem. Better to save yourself from a major catastrophe than drag your feet over a bunch of little inconveniences.

If we think long term, we can accomplish things that we couldn't otherwise accomplish.

A short term view will lead to a partial and perhaps twisted view of the whole picture. A crucial element may be missing. We may not be running the entire race. A friend of mine described a colleague as great at running the "ninety-five yard dash." That is a distinction I can do without. Lacking the last five yards makes the first ninety-five pointless. In fact, serious runners thing of it as a 110 yard dash so that no one will best them in the last few yards. You've got to think beyond the whole.

A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.

We have to always look ahead enough moves to be well prepared, even for victory!

Those who plan do better than those who do not plan, even should they rarely stick to their plan.

The most challenging thing for a young entrepreneur is to think long-term. When you are 22 years old, it’s hard to think in 22-year increments since that’s as long as you’ve been alive. But it’s really important to view your life as an entrepreneur as a long journey that consists of many short-term cycles.

It would have marked a want of foresight in the convention, which our own experience would have rendered inexcusable.

The next thing to be said about what long-range planning is not, is that it does not deal with future decisions. It deals with the futurity of present decisions. Decisions exist only in the present. The question that faces the long-range planner is not what we should do tomorrow.

I started playing chess when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It is very good for children to learn to play chess, because it helps them to develop their mental abilities. It also helps to consolidate a person's character, because as it happens both in life and in a chess game we have to make decisions constantly. In chess there is no luck and no excuses: everything is in your hands.

An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.

The one who anticipates the action wins. The one who does not, loses.

The opportunist thinks of me and today. The statesman thinks of us and tomorrow.

Maturity is many things. It is the ability to base a judgment on the big picture, the long haul.

Vision rarely require immediate action. It requires patience.

Impatience is a poor substitute for a well-considered plan.