What Lao Tzu Actually Said About Time
All 4 Lao Tzu passages on time, in full — what each one claims, what holds them together, and who argues the other way.
Lao Tzu returns to time four times in thinkr's library — more often than to almost anything else. Semi-legendary sage credited with the Tao Te Ching, the foundational text of Taoism. Counsels wu wei — effortless action, yielding, simplicity.
What follows is every one of those passages, in full, with what each is actually claiming. The language is ancient, but the question underneath is not: what is time for, and what does it ask of you?
Every Lao Tzu passage on time
“Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not. How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see.”
“A violent wind does not outlast the morning; a squall of rain does not outlast the day. Such is the course of Nature. And if Nature herself cannot sustain her efforts long, how much less can man!”
“Block the passages, shut the doors, And till the end your strength shall not fail. Open up the passages, increase your doings, And till your last day no help shall come to you.”
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
What holds these together
Read in sequence rather than one at a time, the passages stop being separate aphorisms. Lao Tzu is not offering four opinions about time; the lines are facets of one position, and the repetition is the argument. The shortest of them — “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” — is the version you can carry, and the longer ones are what it unpacks into.
Lao Tzu applied to a real decision
Quotation is the easy part. The harder test is what the position actually does when it meets a situation where every option costs something. thinkr puts two such cases to Lao Tzu.
A friend asks if they made the right choice. They didn't.
Argued as taoist restraint: You are resisting the urge to force the moment. The danger is mistaking avoidance for patience.
Someone you love is wrong in public.
Argued as practical wisdom: You are separating the need to be right from the need to help. The risk is allowing falsehood to stand when silence has a cost.
Work through these yourself
- A friend asks if they made the right choice. They didn't. — argued from taoist restraint and several competing positions
- Someone you love is wrong in public. — argued from practical wisdom and several competing positions
Who disagrees
Albert Camus, Bertrand Russell, Henry David Thoreau and Immanuel Kant all address time too, and they do not converge. Reading Lao Tzu alone gives you a coherent position; reading Lao Tzu against Albert Camus shows you what the position is actually choosing against.