Top 500 Laozi Quotes (2025 Update)
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301. “Knowing that you do not know is the best. Not knowing that you do not know is an illness.”

— Laozi

302. “A good door needs no lock, still it can’t be opened.”

— Laozi

303. “When you have accomplished your goal simply walk away. This is the path way to Heaven.”

— Laozi

304. “Thirty spokes are joined in the wheel’s hub. The hole in the middle makes it useful.”

— Laozi

305. “Those who know do not speak; Those who speak do not know. Stop up the openings, Close down the doors, Rub off the sharp edges. Unravel all confusion. Harmonize the light, Give up contention: This is called finding the unity of life.”

— Laozi

306. “That which is achieved the most, still has the whole of its future yet to be achieved.”

— Laozi

307. “A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step – Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others.”

— Laozi

308. “Nothing and no one in the world is valuable or worthless.”

— Laozi

309. “Abandon knowledge and your worries are over.”

— Laozi

310. “If people do not revere the Law of Nature It will adversely affect them. If they accept It with knowledge and reverence, It will accommodate them with balance and harmony.”

— Laozi

311. “Knowledge studies others, wisdom is self known.”

— Laozi

312. “The moment truth is asserted, it becomes false.”

— Laozi

313. “There is no greater offence than harbouring desires. There is no greater disaster than discontent. There is no greater misfortune than wanting more.”

— Laozi

314. “The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”

— Laozi

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

— Laozi

316. “The unyielding army will not win.”

— Laozi

317. “A violent wind does not last for a whole morning...”

— Laozi

318. “Strong winds do not last all morning, hard rains do not last all day.”

— Laozi

319. “The truly great ones rely on substance, and not on surface, hold on to the fruit, and not to the flower.”

— Laozi

320. “When you accurately perceive the fluidity of things, you can also begin to perceive the constancy behind them: the creative, transformative, boundless, immutable Tao.”

— Laozi

321. “He who controls the past controls the future.”

— Laozi

322. “Nature doesn’t make long speeches.”

— Laozi

323. “The river and the sea can be kings of a hundred valleys, because they lie below them.”

— Laozi

324. “He who acts, spoils; he who grasps, lets slip.”

— Laozi

325. “To joy in conquest is to joy in the loss of human life.”

— Laozi

326. “Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself.”

— Laozi

327. “The Way is hidden and nameless. Still only the Way nourishes and completes.”

— Laozi

328. “All things arise in unison. Thereby we see their return.”

— Laozi

329. “Profound virtue is indeed deep and wide. It leads all things back to the great order.”

— Laozi

330. “Where there is no conflict, there is no fault.”

— Laozi

331. “Clay is fashioned into vessels; it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends. Doors and windows are cut out to make a dwelling, and on the empty space within, its use depends. Thus, while the existence of things may be good, it is the non-existence in them that makes them serviceable.”

— Laozi

332. “That the soft overcomes the hard, and the yielding overcomes the resistant, is a fact known by all, but practiced by few.”

— Laozi

333. “The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest.”

— Laozi

334. “Letting the mind control the vital breath is called force.”

— Laozi

335. “Follow diligently the Way in your own heart, but make no display of it to the world.”

— Laozi

336. “As soon as you have made a thought, laugh at it.”

— Laozi

337. “Going forward seems like retreat...”

— Laozi

338. “By moderation one can be generous.”

— Laozi

339. “When taxes are too high, people go hungry.”

— Laozi

340. “Those who take long steps cannot keep the pace.”

— Laozi

341. “I do not know its name. I call it the Way. For the lack of better words I call it great.”

— Laozi

342. “Quarrel with a friend – and you are both wrong.”

— Laozi

343. “The Way of Tao is this: It strives not, but conquers; It speaks not, but all is made clear; It summons not, but its house is crowded; It contrives not, but the design is perfect.”

— Laozi

344. “Not knowing of the eternal leads to unfortunate errors.”

— Laozi

345. “To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go: for just letting it go is what makes it stay.”

— Laozi

346. “If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”

— Laozi

347. “The sage embraces the one, and is an example to the world.”

— Laozi

348. “With virtue and quietness one may conquer the world.”

— Laozi

349. “All things in the world are born out of being. Being is born out of non-being.”

— Laozi

350. “If you fail to honor your people, They will fail to honor you; It is said of a good leader that When the work is done, the aim fulfilled, The people will say, “We did this ourselves.””

— Laozi