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Title: Tao Te Ching Authors: Lao Tzu Category:supplementals Number of Highlights: 58 Date: 2026-01-29 Last Highlighted: **
Highlights
In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, donât try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present. When you are content to be simply yourself and donât compare or compete, everybody will respect you.
Tags:favorite,perspective,present,wisdom
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about peopleâs approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.
Tags:boundaries,favorite,stress,work:life
Failure is an opportunity. If you blame someone else, there is no end to the blame. Therefore the Master fulfills her own obligations and corrects her own mistakes. She does what she needs to do and demands nothing of others.
Tags:failing,favorite,perspective,progress,stoic
See the world as your self. Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as your self; then you can care for all things.
Giving birth and nourishing, having without possessing, acting with no expectations, leading and not trying to control: this is the supreme virtue.
Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.
Tags:present
Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
Tags:favorite,gratitude,perception
True words arenât eloquent; eloquent words arenât true. Wise men donât need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point arenât wise.
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
Tags:favorite,influence,intelligence,wisdom
The Master doesnât seek fulfillment. Not seeking, not expecting, she is present, and can welcome all things.
Because he believes in himself, he doesnât try to convince others. Because he is content with himself, he doesnât need othersâ approval. Because he accepts himself, the whole world accepts him.
Tags:leadership
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants. A good scientist has freed himself of concepts and keeps his mind open to what is.
Tags:perception,present,problem_solving
Not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease. First realize that you are sick; then you can move toward health. The Master is her own physician. She has healed herself of all knowing. Thus she is truly whole.
I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion.
Tags:virtues
Those who know donât talk. Those who talk donât know.
Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results.
Tags:favorite,problem_solving,work
Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.
Tags:philosophy
The Master doesnât talk, he acts. When his work is done, the people say, âAmazing: we did it, all by ourselves!â
Tags:leadership
If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial. If you want to become straight, let yourself be crooked. If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give everything up.
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.
Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.
Tags:death,philosophy
When there is no desire, all things are at peace.
If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you arenât afraid of dying, there is nothing you canât achieve.
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.
Tags:perspective,religion
In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added. In the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped. Less and less do you need to force things, until finally you arrive at non-action. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way. It canât be gained by interfering.
The Masterâs power is like this. He lets all things come and go effortlessly, without desire. He never expects results; thus he is never disappointed. He is never disappointed; thus his spirit never grows old.
Tags:religion
Colors blind the eye. Sounds deafen the ear. Flavors numb the taste. Thoughts weaken the mind. Desires wither the heart. The Master observes the world but trusts his inner vision. He allows things to come and go. His heart is open as the sky.
When they lose their sense of awe, people turn to religion. When they no longer trust themselves, they begin to depend upon authority.
Tags:religion
Do you want to improve the world: Ramana Maharshi said, Wanting to reform the world without discovering oneâs true self is like trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.
Tags:perspective,religion
He who stands on tiptoe doesnât stand firm. He who rushes ahead doesnât go far. He who tries to shine dims his own light. He who defines himself canât know who he really is. He who has power over others canât empower himself. He who clings to his work will create nothing that endures. If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go.
Tags:ego,perspective,power,religion
The mark of a moderate man is freedom from his own ideas. Tolerant like the sky, all-pervading like sunlight, firm like a mountain, supple like a tree in the wind, he has no destination in view and makes use of anything life happens to bring his way.
Tags:freedom
The path into the light seems dark, the path forward seems to go back, the direct path seems long, true power seems weak, true purity seems tarnished, true steadfastness seems changeable, true clarity seems obscure, the greatest art seems unsophisticated, the greatest love seems indifferent, the greatest wisdom seems childish.
When the Tao is lost, there is goodness. When goodness is lost, there is morality. When morality is lost, there is ritual. Ritual is the husk of true faith, the beginning of chaos.
There is no greater illusion than fear, no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself, no greater misfortune than having an enemy. Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.
Tags:fear
A good athlete can enter a state of body-awareness in which the right stroke or the right movement happens by itself, effortlessly, without any interference of the conscious will. This is a paradigm for non-action: the purest and most effective form of action. The game plays the game; the poem writes the poem; we canât tell the dancer from the dance.
Tags:flow
If you let yourself be blown to and fro, you lose touch with your root. If you let restlessness move you, you lose touch with who you are.
Tags:self-care
Things arise and she lets them come; things disappear and she lets them go. She has but doesnât possess, acts but doesnât expect. When her work is done, she forgets it. That is why it lasts forever.
Tags:craft,philosophy
Open yourself to the Tao, then trust your natural responses; and everything will fall into place.
Tags:religion
If you close your mind in judgments and traffic with desires, your heart will be troubled. If you keep your mind from judging and arenât led by the senses, your heart will find peace.
The best athlete wants his opponent at his best. The best general enters the mind of his enemy. The best businessman serves the communal good. The best leader follows the will of the people. All of them embody the virtue of non-competition. Not that they donât love to compete, but they do it in the spirit of play. In this they are like children and in harmony with the Tao.
Confront the difficult while it is still easy; accomplish the great task by a series of small acts.
When they think that they know the answers, people are difficult to guide. When they know that they donât know, people can find their own way.
The Master can keep giving because there is no end to her wealth. She acts without expectation, succeeds without taking credit, and doesnât think that she is better than anyone else.
Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself.
When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king. Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.
If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.
When taxes are too high, people go hungry. When the government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit. Act for the peopleâs benefit. Trust them; leave them alone.
Those who know donât talk. They donât talk for the sake of talking, or to prove something, or to display themselves. They talk only if itâs appropriate (and if they feel like talking). Those who talk donât know: This is ignorance, not the openness of not-knowing.
A great nation is like a great man: When he makes a mistake, he realizes it. Having realized it, he admits it. Having admitted it, he corrects it. He considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers. He thinks of his enemy as the shadow that he himself casts.
The Master stays behind; that is why she is ahead. She is detached from all things; that is why she is one with them. Because she has let go of herself, she is perfectly fulfilled.
What is rooted is easy to nourish. What is recent is easy to correct. What is brittle is easy to break. What is small is easy to scatter. Prevent trouble before it arises. Put things in order before they exist.
The Tao doesnât take sides; it gives birth to both good and evil. The Master doesnât take sides; she welcomes both saints and sinners. The Tao is like a bellows: it is empty yet infinitely capable. The more you use it, the more it produces; the more you talk of it, the less you understand.
The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings. He knows that he is going to die, and he has nothing left to hold on to: no illusions in his mind, no resistances in his body. He doesnât think about his actions; they flow from the core of his being. He holds nothing back from life; therefore he is ready for death, as a man is ready for sleep after a good dayâs work.
Unencumbered by any concept of sin, the Master doesnât see evil as a force to resist, but simply as an opaqueness, a state of self-absorption which is in disharmony with the universal process, so that, as with a dirty window, the light canât shine through. This freedom from moral categories allows him his great compassion for the wicked and the selfish.
She is good to people who are good. She is also good to people who arenât good. This is true goodness.
Like an Iroquois woodsman, he left no traces. All he left us is his book: the classic manual on the art of living, written in style of gemlike lucidity, radiant with humor and grace and largeheartedness and deep wisdom: one of the wonders of the world.
The Master views the parts with compassion, because he understands the whole.
If you want to be a great leader, you must learn to follow the Tao. Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself.