Lao Tzu Quotes

Thirty spokes meet in the hub. Where a wheel isn't is where it's useful. Hollowed out, clay makes a pot. Where the pots not is where it's useful. Cut doors and windows to make a room. Where the room isn't, there's room for you. So the profit in what is, is in the use of what isn't.

Clay is fashioned into vessels; it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends. Doors and windows are cut out to make a dwelling, and on the empty space within, its use depends. Thus, while the existence of things may be good, it is the non-existence in them that makes them serviceable.

Clay is molded to form a cup, But it is on its non-being that the utility of the cup depends. Doors and windows are cut out to make a room, But it is on its non-being that the utility of the room depends. Therefore turn being into advantage, and turn non-being into utility.

Mold clay into a bowl. The empty space makes it useful.

Cut out doors and windows for the house. The holes make it useful.

We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use.

If you have to design something, choose things that we need as opposed to frivolous things that we might just want for a month or two for bragging rights.

The meaning or value of a thing consists of what it affords.

If something is functional, you no longer think about it. I care about how meaningful things are.

To use is necessary. And if you can't be used, then you're useless.

Some are created for beauty, and some for use; and there are some which one can do without altogether.

The beautiful is as useful as the useful." He added after a moment’s silence, "Perhaps more so.

The usefulness of a pot comes from its emptiness.

A thing is worth what it can do for you, not what you choose to pay for it.

Any program is only as good as it is useful.

Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

Nothing proves that we are more than nothing.

A painting doesn't have to have a real usability other than you looking at it. Obviously, a car, an engine, or battery has to fit people's needs.

'Form follows function' comes with so much baggage. It's a worthless phrase because you'll never take it for what it means.

Design is not for philosophy it's for life.

Never respect men merely for their riches, but rather for their philanthropy; we do not value the sun for its height, but for its use.

Always think of what is useful and not what is beautiful. Beauty will come of its own accord.

The goodness of a thing created is the perfection of its fitness for the use which it serves. Now that use is either particular or universal.

My interest in creating anything is that it be useful.

All things in their beeing are good for something.