1001Philosophers

Confucius vs Lao Tzu on Knowledge

Confucius is reticent about theoretical knowledge of cosmic ultimates and concentrates on practical knowing within social roles, sustained by ritual and the study of the ancient sages. Lao Tzu treats the most important knowing as a wordless apprehension of the dao that ordinary categorical knowledge actively obstructs. Where Confucian knowing accumulates and refines tradition, Daoist knowing strips it away.

About this topic

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, sources, and limits of knowledge. Philosophers have asked what distinguishes knowledge from mere opinion, whether it requires certainty or can be probabilistic, and how perception, reason, memory, and testimony each contribute. Ancient skeptics challenged the possibility of knowledge altogether, while rationalists located its source in reason and empiricists in experience. Contemporary epistemology investigates justification, reliability, and the social conditions under which beliefs count as knowing.

For a side-by-side overview of the two philosophers more broadly, see the full Confucius vs Lao Tzu comparison. To browse philosophy more widely on this theme, see the Knowledge quotes hub.

Representative quotes on knowledge

Confucius on knowledge

  • “Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

    學而不思則罔，思而不學則殆。

  • “The Morals of Confucius , 2nd edition (London, 1724), Maxim X, p. 114”

    He that in his studies wholly applies himself to labour and exercise, and neglects meditation, loses his time, and he that only applies himself to meditation, and neglects labour and exercise, only wanders and loses himself.

  • “Men do not stumble over mountains , but over molehills”

    Reported in United States Congress House Committee on Agriculture (1973) Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress , p. 21

  • “Reported in United States Congress House Committee on Agriculture (1973) Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress , p. 21”

    Men do not stumble over mountains , but over molehills

  • “Man has three ways of acting wisely. First, on meditation; that is the noblest. Secondly, on imitation ; that is the easiest. Thirdly, on experience ; that is the bitterest.”

    The Analects , as reported in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 279

All 9 Confucius quotes on knowledge →

Lao Tzu on knowledge

  • “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”

    interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992) | Variant translation by Lin Yutang : "He who knows others is learned; he who knows himself is wise".

  • “Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”

    Tao Te Ching, Chapter 56

  • “Attributed to Laozi. Laozi speaking to Confucius. Quoted in James Legge, Texts of Taoism, 34; Quoted from Will Durant , Our Oriental Heritage .”

    Those about whom you inquire have moulded with their bones into dust. Nothing but their words remain. When the hour of the great man has struck he rises to leadership; but before his time has come he is hampered in all that he attempts. I have heard that the successful merchant carefully conceals his wealth, and acts as though he had nothing—that the great man, though abounding in achievements, is

  • “translated by Ch'u Ta-Kao (1904)”

    The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be defined is not the unchanging name. Non-existence is called the antecedent of heaven and earth ; Existence is the mother of all things. From eternal non-existence, therefore, we serenely observe the mysterious beginning of the Universe ; From eternal existence we clearly see the apparent distinctions. These two are the same

  • “Also as Tao called Tao is not Tao.”

    The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be defined is not the unchanging name. Non-existence is called the antecedent of heaven and earth ; Existence is the mother of all things. From eternal non-existence, therefore, we serenely observe the mysterious beginning of the Universe ; From eternal existence we clearly see the apparent distinctions. These two are the same

All 7 Lao Tzu quotes on knowledge →

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