Lao Tzu Quotes

What is a good man but a bad man's teacher? What is a bad man but a good man's job? If you do not remember this, You will get lost, No matter how intelligent you are. It is the great secret.

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

You may find many contradictory statements and philosophies within my writings. However, to this I will say such is life, for life is full of contradictions.

The unnatural, that too is natural.

The words of truth are always paradoxical.

The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.

You've got to learn to accept the fool in you as well as the part that's got it goin' on.

There are trivial truths and the great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.

Contradiction was something I really like when it is embraced in that kind of philosophy.

Happy the man when he has not the defects of his qualities.

Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.

In the affairs of men, there always appears to be a need for at least two things simultaneously, which, on the face of it, seem to be incompatible and to exclude one another. We always need both freedom and order

'Maybe.' There's our word. The wisest answer to ultimate questions.

I'm fascinated by the yin and yang of everything.

I say this all the time: All I know is I know nothing at all.

I am not by any means a philosopher, although I have worked with some talented people in the discipline. But certain philosophical concepts deeply inform the way I think about the world. The idea of 'opposing truths at extremes' is a powerful concept that I came to appreciate in my twenties.

Intelligence is silence, truth is being invisible. But what a racket I make in declaring this.

A man is a golden impossibility. The line he must walk is a hair's breadth. The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool.

Wise people are able to give themselves gracefully to seemingly contradictory experiences, because they know that they belong to different seasons of life, all of which are necessary to the whole. Spring and winter, growth and decay, creativity and fallowness, health and sickness, power and impotence, and life and death all belong within the economy of being.

I like first class, but I don't like first class people - I prefer the people in coach. I like fine restaurants, but prefer the taste of McDonalds. I like to be perfect, but I don't like perfection - I think it's dangerous. There is nothing after perfection. I know, I am a walking contradiction.

The jester is brother to the sage.

Even if I am but a pretender to wisdom, that in itself is philosophy.

Words spoken about the Way have no taste. When looked at, there's not enough to see. When listened to, there's not enough to hear. When used, it is never exhausted.

Nature is actually unnatural

You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth.