Tao Quotes on
Opposites and Paradoxes
Authentic Quotes from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Here are quotes from the Tao Te Ching, the Taoist classic by Lao Tzu, about opposites and paradoxes. To see the whole quoted chapter, click the chapter link within brackets.
Opposites Attract
When everyone in the world sees beauty, then ugly exists.
What is and what is not create each other.
High and low rest on each other.
First and last follow each other.
What’s the difference between yes and no?
What’s the difference between beautiful and ugly?
Heavy is the root of light.
What should be shrunken must first be stretched.
What should be weakened must first be strengthened.
What should be abolished must first be cherished.
What should be deprived must first be enriched.
Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath.
Paradoxes
The highest virtue is not virtuous. Therefore it has virtue. The lowest virtue holds on to virtue. Therefore it has no virtue.
The purest white seems stained.
The grandest virtue seems deficient.
The sturdiest virtue seems fragile.
The most fundamental seems fickle.
The perfect square lacks corners.
The highest tone is hard to hear.
The great image lacks shape.
Sometimes gain comes from losing, and sometimes loss comes from gaining.
What has no substance can penetrate what has no opening.
The most complete seems lacking. Yet in use it is not exhausted.
The most abundant seems empty. Yet in use it is not drained.
The most straight seems curved.
The most able seems clumsy.
The most eloquent seems to stutter.
Taste the tasteless.
Make the small big and the few many.
The Importance of Nothing
Thirty spokes are joined in the wheel’s hub. The hole in the middle makes it useful.
Mold clay into a bowl. The empty space makes it useful.
Cut out doors and windows for the house. The holes make it useful.
The value comes from what is there, but the use comes from what is not there.
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Here are the 388 Tao quotes extracted from the Tao Te ching by Lao Tzu, sorted into 19 topics. Each Tao quote has a link to its chapter in the book.
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