Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving

In the serene and eternal voice of Lao Tzu, the sage of harmony and the father of Taoist wisdom, we hear this profound truth: “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” Like water that wears away stone, his words are gentle yet unyielding — simple in form, yet infinite in depth. They speak of the two great powers that shape all human life: love and courage. In them lies the balance between receiving and giving, between shelter and daring, between peace and transformation.

Lao Tzu, who lived in ancient China over two thousand years ago, taught that the universe — the Tao, or “the Way” — moves in harmony through opposites. Yin and yang, strength and gentleness, stillness and motion — each completes and defines the other. His quote reflects this sacred duality. To be deeply loved is to be the receiver of energy, nourished by affection and acceptance. To love deeply, in turn, is to be the giver — to extend the heart beyond fear, to risk pain and vulnerability for the sake of truth. In this delicate balance, the soul discovers its wholeness.

When Lao Tzu says that being deeply loved gives you strength, he speaks of the foundation that love builds within us. The one who is truly loved stands firm, for they have known what it means to be seen, accepted, and cherished without condition. Such love is not a chain but a fortress — a quiet assurance that one is not alone in the storms of life. Love is the unseen hand that steadies us when the world trembles, the invisible current that carries us through despair. It is the source of inner strength, born not from pride or power, but from the certainty that one’s life has meaning to another.

But the second half of Lao Tzu’s teaching burns even brighter: “Loving someone deeply gives you courage.” To love is to expose the most sacred part of yourself — to risk rejection, to face loss, to open the heart despite knowing it may break. There is no act more courageous than love, for it demands vulnerability. The warrior may face the sword without trembling, but the lover faces the unknown depths of another soul. In loving deeply, we defy fear itself. This is the paradox of love: what appears to make us fragile, in truth, makes us fearless.

The ancients knew that the greatest heroes were those who loved deeply. Consider Hector of Troy, who went forth to battle not for glory, but for the safety of his wife Andromache and his son. His love gave him courage greater than the pride of kings. Or recall Mahatma Gandhi, whose love for humanity gave him the strength to stand unarmed against empire and injustice. Love was their armor; compassion, their sword. In every age, it is love that has driven the brave to rise — not hatred, not ambition, but the boundless will to protect and to serve what they hold dear.

To live without love, Lao Tzu would say, is to live half a life — to possess neither true strength nor true courage. The one who fears love fears life itself. But the one who both gives and receives love enters into harmony with the Tao, the eternal flow of giving and receiving that sustains the world. For love, in its purest form, is not possession or desire; it is unity. It is the recognition that strength and courage, giving and receiving, self and other, are but reflections of the same divine whole.

Let this be the lesson to all who seek wisdom: open your heart, for it is in loving that you are made brave, and in being loved that you are made strong. Do not shrink from love’s trials — they are the fires that temper the soul. Nurture the bonds that lift you, honor those who cherish you, and dare to give your affection freely, even when the outcome is uncertain. For in the circle of love — in the endless exchange between giving and receiving — lies the secret of peace, power, and purpose.

And so, children of the Way, remember Lao Tzu’s words when the world feels heavy or the heart feels afraid: seek not to be invincible, but to be connected; seek not to conquer, but to care. For the one who is deeply loved will never fall without rising again, and the one who loves deeply will never live without meaning. In this balance lies the heart of all wisdom — the eternal truth that love is both our greatest strength and our greatest courage.