From the Tao Te Ching in James Legge’s translation (1891). His words in brackets are his own additions to make the terse Chinese readable. Numbers are chapters.
“The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.”Tao Te Ching 1
The deepest reality cannot be captured in words.
“The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving (to the contrary), the low place which all men dislike.”Tao Te Ching 8
Be useful and humble, like water.
“The partial becomes complete; the crooked, straight; the empty, full; the worn out, new.”Tao Te Ching 22
What seems lacking is ready to be filled.
“He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent. He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty.”Tao Te Ching 33
Self-knowledge and self-mastery come first.
“The Tao in its regular course does nothing (for the sake of doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do.”Tao Te Ching 37 (tr. James Legge)
Effortless action achieves the most.
“There is no guilt greater than to sanction ambition; no calamity greater than to be discontented with one’s lot; no fault greater than the wish to be getting.”Tao Te Ching 46
Contentment is wealth.
“He who devotes himself to learning (seeks) from day to day to increase (his knowledge); he who devotes himself to the Tao (seeks) from day to day to diminish (his doing).”Tao Te Ching 48
Wisdom is often subtraction.
“… the journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step.”Tao Te Ching 64
Great things begin small.
“There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it.”Tao Te Ching 78
Softness outlasts hardness.
“Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.”Tao Te Ching 81
Beware of beautiful talk.
“The thirty spokes unite in the one nave; but it is on the empty space (for the axle), that the use of the wheel depends.”Tao Te Ching 11
Emptiness is what makes things useful: the space in a room, the pause in a day.
“He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm; he who stretches his legs does not walk (easily).”Tao Te Ching 24
Straining to look bigger makes you less steady.
“Who knows to stopTao Te Ching 44
Incurs no blame.
From danger free
Long live shall he.”
Knowing when you have enough is a kind of safety.
“He who knows (the Tao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it.”Tao Te Ching 56
Those who understand most often say least.
“Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong.”Tao Te Ching 76
Flexibility belongs to the living; rigidity comes with death.
Thirty spokes meet at the hub, and it is the empty space at the centre that the wheel depends on.
These circulate widely under the same name, but don’t hold up:
More famous misquotes: Quotes They Never Said
Laozi · The Tao Te Ching · Legge’s translation (Project Gutenberg)
