Top 120 Lao Tzu Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “Naming as knowing must have the provisionality to accommodate engaged relationships as in their “doing and undergoing” they deepen and become increasingly robust. Such knowing is dependent upon an awareness of the indeterminate aspects of things. The ongoing shaping of experience requires a degree of imagination and creative projection that does not reference the world as it is, but anticipates what it might become.”

— Lao Tzu

102. “To glimpse the secret of the Tao, you must keep still and quiet your mind.”

— Lao Tzu

103. “The highest virtue is inaction But nothing is left undone.”

— Lao Tzu

104. “Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity and, if compelled, will use them only with the utmost restraint. Peace is his highest value. If the peace has been shattered, how can he be content? His enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself. He doesn’t wish them personal harm. Nor does he rejoice in victory. How could he rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?”

— Lao Tzu

105. “When no credit is taken, Accomplishment endures.”

— Lao Tzu

106. “The more prohibitions and rules, The poorer people become. The sharper people’s weapons, The more they riot. The more skilled their techniques, The more grotesque their works. The more elaborate the laws, The more they commit crimes.”

— Lao Tzu

107. “To the giver comes the fullness of life, to the taker just an empty hand.”

— Lao Tzu

108. “Those who think to win the world by doing something to it, I see them come to grief. For the world is a sacred object. Nothing is to be done to it. To do anything to it is to damage it. To seize it is to lose it.”

— Lao Tzu

109. “Everybody eventually returns to an equilibrium state, the harder you push the harder the fall.”

— Lao Tzu

110. “The most difficult things in the world Must be accomplished through the easiest. The greatest things in the world Must be accomplished through the smallest.”

— Lao Tzu

111. “If you want to be noble, it is rooted in humility; If you want to be elevated, it is based on lowering yourself.”

— Lao Tzu

112. “The essence of life itself is a continuous flow. We may take it for granted and not pay attention to it, but it is always there. Because life begets life, its power extends indefinitely into the future. It does not matter how much we utilize; we can never use it up.”

— Lao Tzu

113. “If you would be at peace, beware of great knowledge.”

— Lao Tzu

114. “Simplicity without a name Is free from all external aim. With no desire, at rest and still, All things go right as of their will.”

— Lao Tzu

115. “I’ve problems because I have a body. When I’ve no body where’s my problem?”

— Lao Tzu

116. “Not to desire material things is to know the freedom of spirituality;.”

— Lao Tzu

117. “When his task is accomplished and his work done The people all say, ‘It happened to us naturally.”

— Lao Tzu

118. “I observe myself and thus understand the others.”

— Lao Tzu

119. “Those who know the truth do not argue about it; those who argue do not know the truth.”

— Lao Tzu

120. “Try to elevate yourself above others, and you will soon fall.”

— Lao Tzu

121. “Those who understand others are intelligent Those who understand themselves are enlightened1 Those who overcome others have strength Those who overcome themselves are powerful.”

— Lao Tzu

122. “FORTY-TWO The Tao begot one. One begot two. Two begot three. And three begot the ten thousand things. The ten thousand things carry yin and embrace yang. They achieve harmony by combining these forces. People hate to be “orphaned,” “widowed,” or “worthless,” But this is how the wise describe themselves. For one gains by losing And loses by gaining. What others teach, I also teach; that is: “A violent person will die a violent death!” This is the essence of my teaching.”

— Lao Tzu

123. “The morally great man is one who keeps throughout life his infant heart.”

— Lao Tzu

124. “Look. Forget how smart you think you are. Stop wanting everything, as though there is something out there that will cure or fix you. Just make things happen by allowing them to happen Then everything will turn out alright.”

— Lao Tzu

125. “Your body is the form lent to you by heaven and earth. Your life is not your possession, it is the harmony temporarily granted to you by heaven and earth. Your life destiny is not your possession, it is a flow granted to you temporarily by heaven and earth. Your children and grandchildren are not your possessions, heaven and earth have lent them to you to be cast off as an insect sheds its skin.”

— Lao Tzu

126. “Words have an ancestor – a preceding idea, and deeds have a master – a preceding purpose.”

— Lao Tzu

127. “Without going abroad, you can have knowledge of the world. Without gazing at the stars, you can perceive the heavenly Tao. The more you wander, the less you know. The wise explore without traveling, discern without seeing, finish without striving, and arrive at their destination without leaving home.”

— Lao Tzu

128. “Eyes look but cannot see it Ears listen but cannot hear it Hands grasp but cannot touch it Beyond the senses lies the great Unity – invisible, inaudible, intangible.”

— Lao Tzu

129. “When beauty is only a masquerade, it is actually ugliness. Just as goodness, if it is not sincere, is not really goodness.”

— Lao Tzu

130. “The wise are also impartial; to them all people are equal and alike.”

— Lao Tzu

131. “The Tao is like an empty container: it can never be emptied and can never be filled. Infinitely deep, it is the source of all things.”

— Lao Tzu

132. “He who overcomes by violence will be overcome by violence.”

— Lao Tzu

133. “The wise, trusting in goodness, see the potential in others, treating no one as an outcast.”

— Lao Tzu

134. “Daoist naming personalizes a relationship and, abjuring any temptation to fix what is referenced, instead understands the name as a shared ground of growing intimacy. Such naming is presentational rather than just representational, normative rather than just descriptive, perlocutionary rather than just locutionary, a doing and a knowing rather than just a saying.”

— Lao Tzu

135. “The wise attend to the inner truth of things and are not fooled by outward appearances.”

— Lao Tzu

136. “Need little, want less. Forget the rules. Be untroubled.”

— Lao Tzu