Q0457

Laozi

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Nothing under Heaven is softer than water, yet nothing attacks the hard and strong more effectively.
Thinker Laozi
School Daoism
Source Daodejing 78
Theme Philosophy
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Daodejing 78, 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.). Nothing under Heaven is softer than water, yet nothing attacks the hard and strong more effectively. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0457

MLA: Laozi. “Nothing under Heaven is softer than water, yet….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0457.

Chicago: Laozi. “Nothing under Heaven is softer than water, yet….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0457.

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. Humans model themselves on earth; earth on heaven; heaven on the Way; and the Way on what is naturally so.

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