Lao Tzu Quotes

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

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

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.

Be soft, even if you stand to get squashed.

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

The soft and weak can overcome the hard and strong.

He's a million rubber bands in his resilience.

Do not be too hard, lest you be broken; do not be too soft, lest you be squeezed.

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.

I'm a strong fighter, I'm a fighter who can adapt to my surroundings.

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

I had grown up. I had learned that being a woman was knowing when to stand firm and when to compromise. I had learned to laugh and weep; I had learned that I was weak as well as strong. I had learned to love. I was no longer a rigid, upright tree that would not flex and bow, even though the gale threatened to snap it in two; I was the willow that bends and shivers and sways, and yet remains strong.

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

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

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

Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice. Therefore the Master remains serene in the midst of sorrow. Evil cannot enter his heart. Because he has given up helping, he is people's greatest help. True words seem paradoxical.

It's not always the strong that survive. It takes brains, guts, tolerance and forward thinking.

Whatever life may send your way - make the best of it. Don't waste your time and energy worrying about it. Instead, find a way to do something about it. Learn from it, adjust to it, be strong, be flexible and be your best in every situation.

Weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing. When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible. When he dies, he is hard and insensitive. When a tree is growing, it's tender and pliant. But when it's dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death's companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.

Nothing on earth is so weak and yielding as water, but for breaking down the firm and strong it has no equal.

An oak and a reed were arguing about their strength. When a strong wind came up, the reed avoided being uprooted by bending and leaning with the gusts of wind. But the oak stood firm and was torn up by the roots.

There is nothing as strong as tenderness, And nothing as tender as true strength.

That which yields is not always weak.

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.

We believe that it takes a strong back and a soft front to face the world.