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Laozi: 2 ideas worth knowing

2 ideas from Laozi, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• The Taoist ideal is achieving the most by forcing the least

  In the Tao Te Ching, Laozi describes wu wei, or 'effortless action', as the highest way to live and govern: aligning with the natural flow of things rather than straining against t…

  — Laozi, Wu wei

• Chinese philosophy's most famous book opens by saying it can't actually tell you anything

  The Tao Te Ching's opening line, 'the Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao,' insists the ultimate nature of reality slips through language itself, so any definition you're…

  — Laozi (traditional attribution), Tao Te Ching

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