When cleverness emerges There is great hypocrisy.

When the worst student hears about the Way, he laughs out loud. If he did not laugh, it would be unworthy of being the Way.

The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.

The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world. Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.

Weapons are ominous tools. They are abhorred by all creatures. Anyone who follows the Way shuns them.

In the highest antiquity, the people did not know that there were rulers. In the next age they loved them and praised them. In the next they feared them; in the next they despised them.

The group will not prosper if the leader grabs the lion's share of the credit for the good work that has been done.