The highest excellence is like water. — Lao Tzu · Smartyfair

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The highest excellence is like water. — Lao Tzu · Smartyfair

The highest excellence is like water.

Lao Tzuphilosopher · Ancient China (traditionally 6th century BC)Lao Tzu was an ancient Chinese philosopher believed to have written the Tao Te Ching, a book about living simply and in harmony with nature.8 quotes

Source foundNature

In plain words

Water is soft and patient and flows around anything. Be like water.

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Where these words come from

How sure this is: 90% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
What turned up: Tao Te Ching, ch. 8, Legge translation, 1891, opening sentence.
Work: Tao Te Ching
Occasion: 6th century BCE (traditional) · China · chapter 8, on water as a model of virtue
Sources checked: en.wikisource.orgChecked using claude-sonnet-5, 21 August 2026Fetched; confirmed verbatim, bracketed "(that of)" removed as pure editorial gloss

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More from Lao Tzu

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

More on nature

Clouds come floating into my life from other days no longer to shed rain or usher storm but to give colour to my sunset sky.

Rabindranath Tagore

Ancient

A violent wind does not outlast the morning; a squall of rain does not outlast the day. Such is the course of Nature.

Lao Tzu

He who devotes himself to learning seeks from day to day to increase his knowledge.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

To those who are good, I am good; and to those who are not good, I am also good; and thus all get to be good.

He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

All art is but imitation of nature.

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

Henry David Thoreau

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.