Top 500 Laozi Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Teacher Quotes, School Quotes

2. “Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habit.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Smart Quotes, Determination Quotes

3. “Health is the greatest possession.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Positive Life Quotes, Feel Good Quotes, Wellness Quotes, Deep Quotes, Health Quotes

4. “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Reflection Quotes, Wisdom Quotes, Philosophical Quotes, Taoism Quotes, Self Control Quotes

5. “A journey of 1000 miles begins with one step.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Meaning Quotes, Moving On Quotes, Intelligent Quotes, Progress Quotes, Taoism Quotes

6. “New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”

— Laozi

7. “If you tell me, I will listen. If you show me, I will see. If you let me experience, I will learn!”

— Laozi

8. “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Journey Quotes, New Beginnings Quotes, Preparation Quotes, Path Quotes, Taoism Quotes

9. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Acceptance Quotes, Taoism Quotes, Letting Go Quotes, Quotes About Reality

10. “Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Taoism Quotes

11. “Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can. I wish you Happy New Year and diary full of best stories ever written in your life.”

— Laozi

Featured in: New Year Quotes

12. “Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Taoism Quotes

13. “The wise man is one who knows what he does not know.”

— Laozi

14. “Mastering others is strength. Mastering oneself makes you fearless.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Taoism Quotes

15. “Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Adaptability Quotes, Taoism Quotes

16. “Make your heart like a lake, with calm, still surface, and great depths of kindness.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Serenity Quotes, Taoism Quotes, Beautiful Good Morning Quotes

17. “In work, do what you enjoy.”

— Laozi

18. “Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Taoism Quotes

19. “Before healing others, heal yourself.”

— Laozi

20. “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 people’s approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Serenity Quotes, Taoism Quotes

21. “True power is stillness within motion.”

— Laozi

22. “Empty your mind of all thoughts.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Serenity Quotes, Taoism Quotes

23. “We are all capable of much more than we think we are.”

— Laozi

24. “The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.”

— Laozi

25. “People aren’t against you; they are for themselves. The most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later. He who conquers others is strong, he who conquers himself is mighty.”

— Laozi

26. “The Tao of the sage is work without effort.”

— Laozi

Featured in: Effort Quotes, Taoism Quotes

27. “Practice not-doing and everything will fall into place.”

— Laozi

28. “Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”

— Laozi

29. “Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’ is to say ‘I don’t want to.’”

— Laozi

30. “At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”

— Laozi

31. “To know and not to do is not yet to know.”

— Laozi

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

— Laozi

33. “Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.”

— Laozi

34. “When there is no desire, all things are at peace.”

— Laozi

35. “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.”

— Laozi

36. “Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil.”

— Laozi

37. “Freedom from desire leads to inner peace.”

— Laozi

38. “One who believes in himself has no need to convince others.”

— Laozi

39. “If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.”

— Laozi

40. “Knowing ignorance is strength; ignoring knowledge is sickness.”

— Laozi

41. “Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity.”

— Laozi

42. “If you search everywhere, yet cannot find what you are seeking, it is because what you seek is already in your possession.”

— Laozi

43. “Guns don’t kill people – people do.”

— Laozi

44. “There is no illusion great than fear.”

— Laozi

45. “The Great Tao flows everywhere, to the left and to the right, all things depend on it to exist, and it does not abandon them. To its accomplishments it lays no claims. It loves and nourished all things, but does not lord it over them.”

— Laozi

46. “The eternal void is filled with infinite possibilities.”

— Laozi

47. “To lead people, walk behind them.”

— Laozi

48. “Success is as dangerous as failure. Hope is as hollow as fear.”

— Laozi

49. “If you want to know me, look inside your heart.”

— Laozi

50. “There are many paths to enlightenment. Be sure to take the one with a heart.”

— Laozi