Top 500 Laozi Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance.”

— Laozi

152. “Those who seek knowledge, collect something every day. Those who seek the Way, let go of something every day.”

— Laozi

153. “Going back to the origin is called peace; it means reversion to destiny. Reversion to destiny is called eternity. Those who know eternity are called enlightened.”

— Laozi

154. “Thirty spokes meet in the hub. Where a wheel isn’t is where it’s useful. Hollowed out, clay makes a pot. Where the pots not is where it’s useful. Cut doors and windows to make a room. Where the room isn’t, there’s room for you. So the profit in what is, is in the use of what isn’t.”

— Laozi

155. “The best people are like water, which benefits all things and does not compete with them. It stays in lowly places that others reject. This is why it is so similar to the Way.”

— Laozi

156. “Only those who leisurely approach that which the masses are busy about can be busy about that which the masses take leisurely.”

— Laozi

157. “There is a time to go ahead and a time to stay behind. There is a time to breathe easy and time to breathe hard. There is a time to be vigorous and a time to be gentle. There is a time to gather and a time to release. Can you see things as they are And let them be all on their own?”

— Laozi

158. “Embrace simplicity. Put others first. Desire little.”

— Laozi

159. “Knowing that we don’t know it’s humility; thinking that we know what we don’t know, is sickness.”

— Laozi

160. “Take time to listen to what is said without words, to obey the law too subtle to be written, to worship the unnameable and to embrace the unformed.”

— Laozi

161. “ALL things in Nature work silently. They come into being and possess nothing. They fulfil their functions and make no claim.”

— Laozi

162. “Even the longest journey must begin where you stand.”

— Laozi

163. “The real key to health and happiness and success is self knowledge.”

— Laozi

164. “For all things difficult to acquire, the intelligent man works with perseverance.”

— Laozi

165. “The great Way is easy, yet people prefer the side paths. Be aware when things are out of balance. Stay centered within the Tao.”

— Laozi

166. “Cultivate virtue in yourself, and it will be true.”

— Laozi

167. “Act without expectation.”

— Laozi

168. “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.”

— Laozi

169. “Man at his birth is supple and tender, but in death, he is rigid and hard. Thus, suppleness and tenderness accompany life, but rigidity and hardness accompany death.”

— Laozi

170. “Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?”

— Laozi

171. “Just as the value of a house lies in its location, The value of a mind lies in its depth, The value of giving lies in the presence of a generous spirit, The value of words lies in their reliability.”

— Laozi

172. “The Tao never acts with force, yet there is nothing that it can not do.”

— Laozi

173. “Nurture the spontaneous peaceful life.”

— Laozi

174. “He who knows enough is enough will always have enough.”

— Laozi

175. “Behave simply and hold on to purity.”

— Laozi

176. “Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself.”

— Laozi

177. “Silence is a source of great strenght.”

— Laozi

178. “It is hidden but always present.”

— Laozi

179. “Softness triumphs over hardness, feebleness over strength. What is more malleable is always superior over that which is immoveable. This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them, of mastery through adaptation.”

— Laozi

180. “The best soldier does not attack. The superior fighter succeeds without violence. The greatest conqueror wins without struggle. The most successful manager leads without dictating. This is intelligent non aggressiveness.”

— Laozi

181. “The living are soft and yielding; the dead are rigid and stiff. Living plants are flexible and tender; the dead are brittle and dry.”

— Laozi

182. “Use your light, but dim your brightness.”

— Laozi

183. “Supreme good is like water. Water greatly benefits all things, without conflict. It flows through places that people loathe. Thereby it is close to the Way.”

— Laozi

184. “If one desires to receive one must first give. This is called profound understanding.”

— Laozi

185. “Tao in the world is like a river flowing home to the sea.”

— Laozi

186. “When the ancient Masters said, “If you want to be given everything, give everything up,” they weren’t using empty phrases. Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself.”

— Laozi

187. “Mask your brightness. Be at one with the dust of the earth. This is primal union.”

— Laozi

188. “Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle. A tree that is unbending is easily broken.”

— Laozi

189. “Without the tao, Kindness and compassion are replaced by law and justice; Faith and trust are supplanted by ritual and ceremony.”

— Laozi

190. “A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.”

— Laozi

191. “Find a teacher who is an integral being, a beacon who extends his light and virtue with equal ease to those who appreciate him and those who don’t. Shape yourself in his mold, bathe in his nourishing radiance, and reflect it out to the rest of the world.”

— Laozi

192. “The words of truth are always paradoxical. To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.”

— Laozi

193. “Nature’s way is simple and easy, but men prefer the intricate and artificial.”

— Laozi

194. “If you go searching for the Great Creator, you will come back empty-handed. The source of the universe is ultimately unknowable, a great invisible river flowing forever through a vast and fertile valley. Silent and uncreated, it creates all things.”

— Laozi

195. “He who defends with love will be secure; Heaven will save him, and protect him with love.”

— Laozi

196. “If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go.”

— Laozi

197. “To attain knowledge, add things every day To attain wisdom, remove things every day.”

— Laozi

198. “The more laws and restrictions there are, the poorer the people become.”

— Laozi

199. “All things flourish, and each returns to its source.”

— Laozi

200. “Battles are followed by years of famine.”

— Laozi