The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

Someone who is too insistent in his own views finds few to agree with him.

Everything under heaven is a sacred vessel and cannot be controlled. Trying to control leads to ruin. Trying to grasp, we lose. Allow your life to unfold naturally. Know that it too is a vessel of perfection. Just as you breathe in and breathe out, there is a time for being ahead and a time for being behind; a time for being in motion and a time for being at rest; a time for being vigorous and a time for being exhausted; a time for being safe and a time for being in danger.

Water is fluid, soft & yielding but water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield ... what is soft is strong.

The person of superior integrity does not insist upon his integrity.For this reason, he has integrity.The person of inferior integritynever loses sight of his integrity;For this reason, he lacks integrity.

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

The slaying of multitudes should be mourned with sorrow. A victory should be celebrated with the funeral rite.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.

A man is born gentle and weak; at his death he is hard and stiff. All things, including the grass and trees, are soft and pliable in life; dry and brittle in death. Stiffness is thus a companion of death; flexibility a companion of life. An army that cannot yield will be defeated. A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. The hard and stiff will be broken; the soft and supple will prevail.

Great acts are made up of small deeds.