Quotes About Wu Wei

In Taoism, we drop things. Since our infancy, we have learned many things that separate us from the universe. We worry about trivial matters, like wealth and prestige. Now we want to return to our origins, to be more like a baby and forget these distractions. We want to do nothing. This is Wu Wei.

Before laissez-faire there was wu wei. "Practise not doing and everything will fall into place," says the Tao Te Ching, Taoism's primer.

In a similar vein, Taoism identifies freedom with wu wei: acting without acting.

He was never once bored. He wasn't sure, he said, that he even understood the concept of boredom. It applied only to people who felt they had to be doing something all the time, which from what he'd observed was most people. Hermits of ancient China had understood that wu wei, "non-doing," was an essential part of life, and Knight believes there isn't nearly enough nothing in the world anymore.

Hermits of ancient China had understood that wu wei, "non-doing," was an essential part of life, and Knight believes there isn't nearly enough nothing in the world anymore.