Lao Tzu War Quotes

There is no calamity greater than lightly engaging in war.

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

Libraries are sanctuaries from the world and command centers onto it: here in the quiet rooms are the lives of Crazy Horse and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Hundred Years' War and the Opium Wars and the Dirty War, the ideas of Simone Weil and Lao-Tzu, information on building your sailboat or dissolving your marriage, fictional worlds and books to equip the reader to reenter the real world. They are, ideally, places where nothing happens and where everything that has happened is stored up to be remembered and relived, the place where the world is folded up into boxes of paper. Every book is a door that opens onto another world, which might be the magic that all those children's books were alluding to, and a library is a Milky Way of worlds.

against war Weapons are unhappy tools, not chosen by thoughtful people, to be used only when there is no choice, and with a calm, still mind, without enjoyment. To enjoy using weapons is to enjoy killing people, and to enjoy killing people is to lose your share in the common good. ...

many historians contend that Laozi actually lived in the 4th century BC, which was the period of Hundred Schools of Thought and Warring States Period, while others contend he was a mythical figure. Laozi was credited with

This world has no need for weapons, Which soon turn on themselves. Where armies camp, nettles grow; After each war, years of famine. The most fruitful outcome Does not depend on force, But succeeds without arrogance Without hostility Without pride Without resistance Without violence.

To find glory in victory is to savour killing people... when so many people are being killed it should be done with tears and mourning. And victory too should be conducted like a funeral. Verse 31 (Hinton translation)

Weapons are never the implements of good fortune, and they are to be detested. Therefore, the wise leader avoids them. Normally the wise leader values patience, but when at war he values action. Since he is opposed to the use of weapons, he uses them only when it is unavoidable, and even then with great restraint. To praise victory in war is to rejoice in the slaughter of men. The slaughter of men causes grief and sorrow to the people, therefore he who rejoices in this will not be successful. Fortune follows the restrained, misfortune follows the ambitious. Therefore victory in war should not be celebrated, but instead should be met with mourning.

Use convention to govern a state, use surprise in waging war, use disinterest to take the world. How do I know this is so? When there are many taboos in the world, the people grow poorer and poorer. When the people have many weapons, the nation grows more benighted. When the people are very crafty, weird things arise more and more. The greater the articulation of rules of law, the more brigands and outlaws there are. Therefore a wise rulers says, “If I contrive nothing, the people will naturally be civilized. If I am fond of tranquility, the people will naturally be upright.  If I am disinterested, the people will naturally become rich.  If I want not to want, the people will naturally be innocent.

When the world lacks guidance, war horses are bred in the countryside.

Laozi was an ancient Chinese philosopher. According to Chinese tradition, Laozi lived in the 6th century BC, however many historians contend that Laozi actually lived in the 4th century BC, which was the period of Hundred Schools of Thought and Warring States Period, while others contend he was a mythical figure. Laozi was credited with writing the seminal Taoist work, the Tao Te Ching, which was originally known as the Laozi. Taishang Laojun was a title for Laozi in the Taoist religion. It refers to One of the Three Pure Ones. Source: Wikipedia

If you govern a country by listening to the arguments of a multitude of people, the country will be in danger in no time at all. How do we know this is so? Lao-tzu emphasized flexibility, Confucius emphasized humaneness, Mo-tzu emphasized universality, the Keeper of the Pass emphasized purity, Lieh-tzu emphasized emptiness, Ch’en Ping emphasized equality, Yang Chu emphasized self, Sun Pin emphasized power, Wang Liao emphasized initiative, Ni Liang emphasized conformism. Using bells and drums is a means of unifying ears; making law and order uniform is a way of unifying minds. When the smart ones can’t be clever and the stupid ones can’t be clumsy, this is a means of unifying a mass.

The wise leader considers the left to be honorable   While mongers of war prefer the right. Weapons of war are not for the wise   The wise only use these weapons when it cannot be avoided   The wise practice restraint and caution in the use of them

Sir, leadership is not the exertion of power and control alone. Rather it is the strategic use of enlightened thought and well-intentioned actions.

Swift horses are curbed for hauling dung-carts in the field. When Tao does not reign in the world, War horses are bred on the commons outside the cities. There is no greater crime than seeking what men desire; There is no greater misery than knowing no content; There is no greater calamity than indulging in greed. Therefore the contentment of knowing content will ever be contented.

Love has an immense power. Love is the strongest creative force in life. Love is what makes life meaningful. But love has a very different kind of power compared to what we usually define as power. We are acquainted with the power of the ego, the power of violence, aggression and destructivity. The basic problem for humanity is that people do not grow. That is why we go on writing human history about people like Alexander the Great, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, The stout right-wing Christian Ronald Regan, who murdered Osho, one of the most intelligent spiritual teachers of the 20th century. Osho was elected by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of the 20th century. The murders of John F. Kennedy and Osho caused the United States to regress as a moral, sane and humane country. Initiated sources in the U.S. say that the decision to murder Osho was taken on the highest levels in the U.S and the Vatican. American magazine Elle wrote: "Like Socrates, Osho was considered a corrupter of the morals of young people. Like all true philosophers he demolished a belief system that produced only unhappiness, not joy."The Dalai Lama said: "Osho is an enlightened master who is working with all possibilities to help humanity overcome a difficult phase in developing consciousness.", Joseph Stalin, George W. Bush, who started a war on Iraq built on lies, and murdered 1 million men, women and children to privatize Iraq's oil and sell it at a bargain price to Western oil companies. In modern times, Benjamin Netanyahu is repeating the darkest time in human history that humanity has sworn never to repeat again, by creating a modern concentration camp where defenseless Palestinian men, women and children are killed every day with high-tech weapons. The Western countries look the other way, only saying that Israel has the right to defend itself. Jacob Wallenberg, owner of the Swedish war industry, and the Swedish fascist, racist and bourgeois government, exports weapons to Israel, in order to more effectively murder more women and children per day, Donald Trump is currently dismantling American democracy, education and freedom of speech and is introducing fascism and racism all over the world. These people have a power that is violence, aggression and destruction. It is a power that is against life. It is a power that is against existence. It is a power that is against God. These people are the real psychopaths, narcissists, criminals. who suffer from a deep-seated inferiority complex. History should be erased from these people. Children should not be forced to read about these people and their disgusting and destructive actions. History should be concerned with people like Buddha, Jesus Christ, Kabir, Lao Tzu, Socrates, Rabiya and Osho, who are men and women of love, They are the salt of the earth. These people also have a power, but that is a totally different kind of power, which creates. To be destructive is easy. No intelligence and awareness is needed to be destructive. But to create needs intelligence and awareness. To be creating can only be done by people, who experience love, joy, truth, freedom and beauty. To be creative means to be part of God, because God is the creator. To be creative means to be part of the creativity of God. That is the power of love. The man of love is always creative. Whatsoever he does is creative. And the man of creativity slowly learns about love. Start from love and let love become creativity in your life. Love is our center of being and creativity is our periphery. Love plus creativity is equal to religion.

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." ~Lao Tzu

There are two kinds of people in the world.  The first kind is the creative and conscious people and the second kind is the destructive and unconscious. Great awareness is needed to be creative and conscious, while no awareness and consciousness is needed to be destructive. The creative people have attained inner awareness.  The other kind of people are the violent and destructive people, who are the unhealthy, narcissistic and pathological people. These are the people who bring misery and human suffering to the world. They themselves are miserable and they create misery for others.  Alexander the Great killed thousands of people, Joseph Stalin killed millions of people and Adolf Hitler is one of the greatest murders history has known.  The world would have been better without them.  The creative and conscious people are a blessing to the world. Without them humanity would not have progressed at all. These people are the salt of the earth. Life has some meaning, joy, beauty and song, because of these people. People like Buddha, Jesus and Lao Tzu made themselves blissful, and spread the secret of being blissful in the world. They spread their light in the world.  Meditation is the way to become blissful. Become blissful, because you can only give that which you have. You cannot give that which you do not have. Become a source of bliss and blessings to others. 

When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty. There arises the recognition of ugliness. Where they all know the good as good, There arises the recognition of evil.