Things exalted then decay. This is going against the Way. What goes against the Way meets an early end.

To know one's ignorance is the best part of knowledge.

The biggest in the world is small in its beginning.

Sages do not accumulate for themselves. The more they give to others, the more they possess of their own. The way of Heaven is to benefit others and not to injure.

I let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes as common as the grass.

Better stop short than fill to the brim. Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt. Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.

What makes a kingdom great is its being like a down-flowing river,--the central point towards which all the smaller streams under Heaven converge; or like the female throughout the world, who by quiescence always overcomes the male. And quiescence is a form of humility.