The purpose of this article is to delve into explanations of key passages containing the term “sage” with a special focus on interpreting this notion. Without seeking to propose and defend a definitive view of the role and character of the sage, our core argument is that the sage, however one construes it, can and should serve as an interpretive tool in elucidating the thought, logic, concepts, and observations found in the Laozi as well as their implementation in concrete practice. To this end, we review various possible interpretations and highlight those we think are most significant and compelling when considering the text as a whole. The chapters we consider are organized according to thematic consistencies that arise in prioritizing the “sage” in reading the Laozi. While many studies start with other significant concepts in the text, such as being “self-so” (ziran 自然)and “non-action” (wuwei 無為), and view the sage’s significance as derivative of these concepts—an exemplar of them, for instance—we start with the sage as a significant concept itself, and from here interpret major ideas and themes in light of it. Read in this way, we see that the text emphasizes various consistent themes that are generally underappreciated in current scholarship, though clearly substantial. We look specifically at paradoxical logic, fear and manipulation, humanism and simplicity, desires and knowing contentment, morality and context, politics and self-transformation, as well as disorder and caution. By concentrating on the “sage,” these themes reveal themselves as central consistencies across the text.