Q0162

Laozi

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Humans model themselves on earth; earth on heaven; heaven on the Way; and the Way on what is naturally so.
Thinker Laozi
School Daoism
Source Daodejing, Ch. 25
Theme Nature
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Daodejing, Ch. 25, 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 nature, 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.). Humans model themselves on earth; earth on heaven; heaven on the Way; and the Way on what is naturally so. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0162

MLA: Laozi. “Humans model themselves on earth; earth on heaven;….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0162.

Chicago: Laozi. “Humans model themselves on earth; earth on heaven;….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0162.

Same thinker

More from Laozi

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Difficult affairs under Heaven must arise from the easy; great affairs under Heaven must arise from the small.
  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 nature

  1. Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow.
  2. Nothing can be created from nothing by divine agency.
  3. God, or Nature.
  4. [In the state of nature, the life of man is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
  5. Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe…: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.

Browse the nature theme