“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength”: did Laozi say it?
Not in the Dao De Jing
No: “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength” is not in the Dao De Jing; its earliest known print is Dean Koontz's novel Lightning (1988). Chapter 67 says “With compassion, one can be brave”.
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
The nearest lines in the Dao De Jing
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我有三宝，持而保之。
I have three treasures, which I hold and keep:
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一曰慈，二曰俭，
the first is compassion, the second is frugality,
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三曰不敢为天下先。
the third is not daring to be first in the world.
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慈故能勇，
With compassion, one can be brave;
Where it comes from
The sentence is in no chapter of the Dao De Jing. Wikiquote lists it among the sayings wrongly credited to Laozi: the earliest book it found is Dean Koontz's novel Lightning (1988), which credits Laozi and gives no source. Stefan Stenudd, who keeps a list of sayings wrongly credited to Laozi, found the same, and a near twin in a poem by Esther Huertas, written in an adult literacy programme in September 1988 and printed in 1991. Where Koontz found the line is not known.
What the Dao De Jing says instead
Love between two people is not a subject of the book. But one half of the saying has a real echo. In chapter 67 Laozi names his three treasures; the first is 慈, compassion, the tender care of a parent for a child. Then: 慈故能勇, “With compassion, one can be brave.” The Chinese is about care that makes one brave. It says nothing about the strength of being loved.