Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze

Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if permitted to remain still, it will gradually become clear of itself.

What is important is the existence of the real self, so why bother complaining about the changes that go on around us.

We lose our carefree nature by separating our minds into cubicles and stuffing them full of knowledge. We should strive to break these boundaries and transcend knowledge.

We look at it and do not see it; its name is The Invisible. We listen to it and do not hear it; its name is The Inaudible. We touch it and do not find it; its name is The Formless.

Virtue in its grandest aspect is neither more nor less than following reason.

Useful and useless, achievement and failure, are all relative, and none are necessarily consistent over time.

To yield is to be preserved whole. To be bent is to become straight.

To teach without words and to be useful without action, few among men are capable of this.

To produce without possessing; to work without expecting; to enlarge without usurping: this is the supreme virtue.

To know one's ignorance is the best part of knowledge.

To keep one's tenderness is called strength.

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

To gentlest thing in the world will over-ride the strongest... To remain gentle is to be invincible.

Things fully grown are ready to decay.

There is no greater evil than making light of the enemy... There is nothing so unfortunate as entering lightly into battle, for by so doing we are in danger of losing that which is most precious.

There is no greater curse than the lack of contentment. No greater sin than the desire for possession. Therefore, he who is contented with contentment shall always be content.

The wise man is wise because he understands his ignorance... The wise are not learned; the learned are not wise.

The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.

The slaying of multitudes should be mourned with sorrow. A victory should be celebrated with the funeral rite.

The sage himself never strives for the great, and thereby the great is achieved.

The rewards of vice and virtue are like the shadow following the substance.

The reality of the building does not consist in the roof and walls, but in the space within to be lived in.

The principles of music and wood carving are alike -- when a wood carving is finished, it has been created at the expense of all the wood that has been carved away. Only the music of nature is complete and undiminished.

The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

The imponderable enters the impenetrable.