Laozi quotes: real or not?

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished”: did Laozi say it?

Not in the Dao De Jing

No: “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished” is not in the Dao De Jing, though chapter 73 says the Way of heaven “is unhurried, yet is good at planning”.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Circulates online and on quote sites without a chapter or a translator.

The nearest lines in the Dao De Jing

  1. 天之道,不争而善胜,

    The Way of heaven does not contend, yet is good at winning;

  2. 不言而善应,不召而自来,

    does not speak, yet is good at answering; is not summoned, yet comes of itself;

  3. 繟然而善谋。

    is unhurried, yet is good at planning.

Chapter 73, line 6

  1. 道常无为而无不为,

    The Way constantly practices non-action, yet nothing is left undone.

Chapter 37, line 1

Where it comes from

We found no source. Quote sites give the line as Laozi's without a chapter, and it is not in James Legge's 1891 translation or under any chapter on Wikiquote's Laozi page. The Dao De Jing never says that nature hurries or does not hurry. Its word often translated “nature”, 自然, means literally “so of itself”.

What the Dao De Jing says instead

The nearest line is in chapter 73, on the Way of heaven: 繟然而善谋, “is unhurried, yet is good at planning”. The subject is heaven, not nature, and the claim is about planning, not about getting everything done. The second half of the circulating line is closer to chapter 37, “The Way constantly practices non-action, yet nothing is left undone” (无为而无不为, said again in chapter 48).

Sources

All Laozi quotes checked

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