50 Yin Yang Quotes About the Chinese Philosophy

By Stephanie Kirby | Published July 17, 2023

To learn more about the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang, check out these Yin Yang quotes.

Yin and yang or yinyang is the Chinese philosophy that all existence has an inseparable and contradictory opposite.

Examples of Yin and Yang are:

Male and Female
The Moon and the Sun
Darkness and Light
Heaven and Hell
Old and Young
Weak and Strong
Cold and Warm
Valleys and Mountains

As you can see, each example has an opposite that must exist for either thing to exist.

A woman cannot exist without a man, as it takes the differences between men and women to create new life.

Cold cannot exist without the contradiction of warmth and so on.

Take a few minutes to enjoy these Yin Yang quotes.

You will also enjoy our article on Chinese proverbs and quotes.

Popular Yin Yang Quotes

Here are some popular quotes appearing online about yin and yang.

1. “It takes two to Tao.” — Ana Claudia Antunes

2. “Yin and Yang. Big and small. You and me.” — Hilary Bader

3. “Pain and pleasure are the yin and yang of love.” — J. Earp

4. “The light is the left hand of darkness.” — Ursula K. Le Guin

5. “I think there’s a yin and yang to everything.” — Chris Claremont

Related: Short Inspirational Quotes

6. “We are the yin and yang of the creative process.” — Cynthia Weil

7. “We are not meant to be perfect; we are meant to be whole.” — Jane Fonda

8. “I nurture my feminine energy and honor my yin power.” — Amy Leigh Mercree

9. “He was the yin to my yang, the sparkly jumpsuit to my Elvis.” — Brooke Moss

10. “Countless words count less than the silent balance between yin and yang.” — Laozi

Yin Yang Quotes About Balance

These quotes speak to the balance that is part of the philosophy of yin and yang.

11. “There is no life without death. That is the true meaning of yin and yang” — Lisa See

12. “The motion of yin and yang generates all things in nature.” — Meh Jiuzhang and Guo Lei

13. “Yin and yang are wonderful concepts, the balance, and harmony of life.” — Chris Minmagh

14. “When there is harmony, Yin balances the Yang, and Yang balances the Yin.” — Brendan Kelly

15. “Yin and Yang control man’s actions, and both extremes are a natural reaction.” — Ray Davies

16. “Freedom without discipline is foolish; discipline without freedom is insanity.” — Ilona Mialik

17. “Good necessitates evil, and the two sides of that disk are not always clearly marked.” — Ann Leckie

18. “Our yin and yang, and night and day, is what made us great when we went into the studio.” — DJ Premier

19. “Within each of us lies conflicting forces: yin and yang, light and dark, good and evil.” — David Slack

20. “I’ve gone pretty high at times, so I think the yin yang of that is going pretty low.” — Rick Springfield

People share yin-yang quotes, like the following, to give their perspective on the opposing forces, balance, and interconnectedness of life.

21. “You know, yin and yang represents harmony of opposites. Man, woman, dark, light.” — Christopher Keyser

22. “I don’t know why we work, my husband and I. We just do. We are black and white—yin and yang.” — Heifi Klum

23. “The old age-old story of yin and yang… every positive side has a negative side too. Which are you?” — Timothy Pina

24. “There’s eternal opposition between yin and yang. No third party at all, but treason occurs sometimes.” — Toba Beta

25. “Given a choice, I want to do a yin and yang tattoo on the middle of my chest and right next to my heart.” — Daisy Shah

26. “Words and pictures are yin and yang. Married, they produce a progeny more interesting than either parent.” — Dr. Seuss

27. “Yin-Yang is more than just a concept of opposites; it is the beginning of all things, an energy, a wholeness.” — Gary Erickson

28. “My soul has been severed in two, like Yin and Yang, these parts interlace. Only, both are beasts.” — Ilse V. Rensburg, ‘Blood Sipper’

29. “The essence of yin and yang centers on the tension between two halves of a whole that are both divided and connected.” — Angellia Moore

30. “Yin and yang are the left and right hands of the infinite—creator, destroyer, and reproducer of everything that exists.” — George Ohsawa

Yin Yang Quotes with Examples

Many of these quotes share examples of what people think of as yin and yang in the world.

31. “When I saw that combination of grace and power, the fast and the soft, the yin and the yang, that’s what I’d been looking for.” — Lou Reed

32. “Without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it’s unlikely to be worth the journey. Persist.” — Seth Godin

33. “The world is, was, will always be filled with good and evil, because good and evil is the yin and yang of the human condition.” — Philip Zimbardo

34. “Nothing is completely yin, nor is it completely yang. All things in the material universe contain the seed of their opposite force.” — Chang Sok Suh

35. “Nature is about balance. All the world comes in pairs – Yin and Yang, right and wrong, men and women; what’s pleasure without pain?” — Angelina Jolie

36. “Responsibility and Trust — these two are like Yin and Yang, together perfectly complete, and each one requiring the presence of the other.” — Vera Nazarian

37. “I feel like I always had a yin and yang experience with music. I’ve always been able to rock out, and then I’ve always had to take piano lessons, too.” — Son Lux

38. “Will and I are yin and yang. He’s all sky, vast and bright and soaring, and I’m all earth. I’m here to ground him, and he’s here to help me fly.” — Jada Pinkett Smith

39. “In Taoist philosophy, ‘yin, is the feminine principle, representing the forces of earth, while ‘yang’ is the masculine principle, representing spirit.” — Marianne Williamson

40. “As though our lives play out on an immense balance scale—move one way, the scale tips to the left, but move the other, and it swings around to the right.” — Abramelin Keldor

Everyday Yin and Yang Quotes

The following quotes highlight yin and yang examples that these people found in everyday life.

41. “It is important to find a balance of yin and yang, not just in qigong, but in everyday life. In movement, seek stillness and rest. In rest, be mindful and attentive.” — Ken Cohen

42. “I think the combo of spin and yoga is a yin and yang thing. It’s very important to have balance. I like to bring energy to yoga, and spinning gets you very connected to your core.” — Mandy Ingber

43. “As with lemon juice, the more sorrel you use, the more it has to be balanced with something sweet, starchy, or creamy. It’s a yin-yang approach to cooking that I find rather calming.” — Yotam Ottolenghi

44. “The heart of a human being is no different from the soul of heaven and earth. In your practice, always keep in your thoughts the interaction of heaven and earth, water and fire, yin and yang.” — Morihei Ueshiba

45. “I work with men a lot, and there’s a yin and a yang that goes on when you work one guy and one girl. And there’s things that I bring that they don’t bring and things they bring and I don’t bring.” — Roisin Murphy

More Quotes About the Chinese Philosophy

Here are a few more quotes about the Chinese philosophy of balance.

46. “So my message is in whichever realm, be it going into space or going into the deep sea, you have to balance the yin and yang of caution and boldness, risk aversion and risk-taking, fear and fearlessness.” — James Cameron

47. “Yin is stronger and more abundant than yang, but yang is more obvious and active. There is more water on earth than fire, for example, but fire phenomena such as lightning are more exciting and attract more attention.” — Daniel Reid

48. “Yin and yang, male and female, strong and weak, rigid and tender, heaven and earth, light and darkness, thunder and lightning, cold and warmth, good and evil…the interplay of opposite principles constitute the universe.” — Confucius

49. “I think the world consists of yin and yang. There should be a balance, and it’s important to coexist peacefully, with respect and dignity, and whenever those lines are crossed, I think it’s important for people to speak up for what they believe in.” — Zeenat Aman

50. “It’s kind of the yin and yang that fascinate me. That for all the evil men do, there are also people who work obnoxiously long hours and sacrifice their personal lives because it is a calling—if they don’t keep our streets safe, if they aren’t there to advocate for and save beaten women and children and murder victims, who will?” — Lisa Gardner