Q0158

Laozi

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The highest good is like water. Water benefits the myriad things and does not contend; it dwells in places the multitude dislike — therefore it is close to the Way.
Thinker Laozi
School Daoism
Source Daodejing, Ch. 8
Theme Philosophy
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Daodejing, Ch. 8, within the tradition of Daoism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of philosophy, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Laozi's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Laozi. (n.d.). The highest good is like water. Water benefits the myriad things and does not contend; it dwells in places the multitude dislike — therefore it is close to the Way. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0158

MLA: Laozi. “The highest good is like water. Water benefits….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0158.

Chicago: Laozi. “The highest good is like water. Water benefits….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0158.

Same thinker

More from Laozi

  1. One who knows others is wise; one who knows oneself is enlightened. One who conquers others has strength; one who conquers oneself is truly strong. One who knows contentment is rich; one who persists has will.
  2. A tree that fills the arms' embrace grows from a tiny shoot; a nine-story tower rises from a heap of earth; a journey of a thousand li begins beneath one's feet.
  3. Difficult affairs under Heaven must arise from the easy; great affairs under Heaven must arise from the small.
  4. Humans model themselves on earth; earth on heaven; heaven on the Way; and the Way on what is naturally so.
  5. Know contentment, and you will not be disgraced; know when to stop, and you will not be imperiled — thus you can endure.

All quotations by Laozi

Same theme

More on philosophy

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the philosophy theme