"All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small"
About this Quote
A line like this is a quiet rebuke to the modern addiction to breakthroughs. Lao Tzu isn’t selling optimism; he’s arguing for a physics of change where outcomes are less heroic than cumulative. “Difficult” and “great” are framed not as special categories but as extensions of the ordinary, and that’s the provocation: the spectacular is downstream of the mundane.
The intent is partly tactical. In the Tao Te Ching’s world, the wise ruler doesn’t wait for crises to prove strength; they work upstream, where leverage is highest and resistance is lowest. Start where it’s easy because that’s where the Tao is most available - unforced, unglamorous, often unnoticed. The subtext is a critique of ego. If you only respect big moves, you miss the real engine of power: patient sequencing, restraint, the willingness to be underestimated. Greatness isn’t a personality trait; it’s what small actions become when they’re aligned and repeated.
Context matters: Lao Tzu is writing into an era of political fragmentation and coercive statecraft. Against that backdrop, “small” is not just about scale; it’s about method. Gentle governance, minimal intervention, early correction - these are political technologies disguised as spiritual advice. The sentence works because it flips status. We tend to worship the difficult as proof of importance. Lao Tzu treats the difficult as a symptom that someone ignored the easy for too long. It’s less a fortune-cookie than a warning label: if you can’t do the small thing now, you’ll eventually be forced to do the hard thing later.
The intent is partly tactical. In the Tao Te Ching’s world, the wise ruler doesn’t wait for crises to prove strength; they work upstream, where leverage is highest and resistance is lowest. Start where it’s easy because that’s where the Tao is most available - unforced, unglamorous, often unnoticed. The subtext is a critique of ego. If you only respect big moves, you miss the real engine of power: patient sequencing, restraint, the willingness to be underestimated. Greatness isn’t a personality trait; it’s what small actions become when they’re aligned and repeated.
Context matters: Lao Tzu is writing into an era of political fragmentation and coercive statecraft. Against that backdrop, “small” is not just about scale; it’s about method. Gentle governance, minimal intervention, early correction - these are political technologies disguised as spiritual advice. The sentence works because it flips status. We tend to worship the difficult as proof of importance. Lao Tzu treats the difficult as a symptom that someone ignored the easy for too long. It’s less a fortune-cookie than a warning label: if you can’t do the small thing now, you’ll eventually be forced to do the hard thing later.
Quote Details
| Topic | Chinese Proverbs |
|---|---|
| Source | Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 63 — traditional attribution; see English translations and Chinese original at Chinese Text Project. |
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