Nature Does Not Hurry Yet Everything

This saying is widely attributed to Lao Tzu as a Tao Te Ching quotation, but it does not appear in any standard translation of the text. The sentiment is rooted in Chapter 37, which expresses the paradox of wu wei: "The Tao does nothing, yet nothing is left undone." The popular English phrase — "nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished" — is a modern paraphrase that replaces "Tao" with "nature" and adds imagery of hurrying not found in the original. It captures the spirit of Taoist philosophy accurately, even though the exact wording is not from the Tao Te Ching.