Non-control Quotes

The Tao teaches us not to intervene and interfere. The things we love we have to learn to leave alone. And the people we love we have to learn to let them be.

Do you want to improve the world? I don't think it can be done. The world is sacred. It can't be improved. If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it. If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it. There is a time for being ahead, a time for being behind; a time for being in motion, a time for being at rest; a time for being vigorous, a time for being exhausted; a time for being safe, a time for being in danger. The Master sees things as they are, without trying to control them. She lets them go their own way, and resides at the center of the circle.

Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not dominate it over them.

I had, by thirteen, developed a sort of Taoist hubris about my ability to control via non-control.

The loving personality seeks not to control, but to nurture, not to dominate, but to empower.

I don't need to control anything. Even with romantic partnerships, I don't need to control anyone.

You break free when you feel neither beneath anyone nor superior to anyone, when you shed the need to control other people, when you create space for others to be who they are and for your real self to be what it is.

Things you never thought were going to turn into something end up being the most important things in your life. You have to learn to not try to control it.