5 Quotes From Lao-Tze To Reflect On

Lao-Tze is a Chinese word meaning “old master”. It is also the name of a philosopher and thinker who probably lived in the 6th century BC. He is credited with writing “Tao Te Ching”, but he is also a character shrouded in mystery. In fact, many people doubt that he ever really existed.

What we do know for sure is that an intellectual legacy under the name “Lao-Tze” survived to this day and age. It may not matter if it was one man or many. What is important is that he has passed on lessons that are still relevant thousands of years later.

We must give credit to Lao Tze for a legacy of wisdom. His thoughts reflect many of the essential principles of Eastern culture. They are an appeal for good judgment, simplicity and calm. They exalt intelligence and temperament. Here we share five of his wonderful words and aphorisms.

1. Happiness in the eyes of Lao Tze

Lao-Tze reflected on happiness. From his point of view, and many centuries before the consumer age, the philosophy of the East separated happiness from possessions. A timeless quote on the subject says: “He who is not satisfied with little, will not be satisfied with much”.

This saying puts happiness in a framework where it does not matter what one has. Having little is not the same as accident. Having a lot does not mean happiness. We achieve well-being through things that have nothing to do with assets. Happiness and unhappiness exist only in being, not in what surrounds us.

2. About stiffness and flexibility

Many people talk about being firm and strict as good virtues. However, this perspective can forget the logic of being alive. Where there is life, there is change. And change requires adaptation. Instead of being like steel, life demands that we float like water.

Lao-Tze gave us another wonderful thought on the subject: “In life, man is flexible and he develops. At the moment of death he is stiff and unchanging. Plants in the sun are flexible and fibrous, but they seem dry and destructible. Therefore, flexibility and resilience are associated with life, and rigidity and immutability go hand in hand with death. ”

To love and be loved

Long before humanistic doctrine emerged and became popular, Lao-Tze offered a vision of love as power. He highlighted the profound difference between loving and being loved in one of his quotes: “Being deeply loved gives you strength, while loving deeply gives you courage.”

There is a subtle but important difference between strength and courage. We can define strength as a physical or subjective ability to do something. Courage, on the other hand, refers to bravery and the choice to do so. Strength is to be able, courage is to want . There is a big emotional difference between one concept and another. While wanting leads to being able to, the opposite is not necessarily true.

4. Strong desires and frustration

Asians emphatically reject strong desires. They consider it a source of unnecessary suffering. Their philosophy focuses more on the ability to give up what you have before you look for what you want. True to this philosophy, Lao-Tze offers these words:

“He who does not want will not be frustrated. And he who does not get frustrated does not get corrupted. A truly wise man waits in silence while everything happens. Strong desires do not dictate anything. In this way, peace and harmony have their place and the world follows its natural course. ”

To Westerners, this idea seems almost absurd. In Western societies, ambition is a source of growth and progress. Yet our current reality shows us that strong desires can be a bottomless pit that is never satisfied.

5. To fight or to retreat

The East is home to martial arts. Paradoxically, the majority of martial arts instruct one to avoid combat whenever possible. The greatest wisdom that war provides is precisely that we must try our best to avoid it. Lao-Tze’s philosophy confirms this idea with this saying: “The strategy book says: do not provoke a struggle, accept it; it is better to retreat one meter than to advance one centimeter. ”

Lao-Tze’s thinking is without a doubt a great gift of wisdom to the world. It not only provides a guide to the art of living well, but it uses the language of poetry to share its lessons. We have a lot to learn from this thousand-year-old character, who seems more alive today than ever before.