Empty your mind of all thoughts. Let your heart be at peace. Watch the turmoil of beings, but contemplate their return.

Great indeed is the sublimity of the creative, to which all beings owe their beginning and which permeates all heaven.

What the Way is to the world, the stream is to the river and the sea.

A great country is like the lower outlet of a river. It is the world's meeting ground, the world's female.

The sage is sharp but does not cut, pointed but does not pierce, forthright but does not offend, bright but does not dazzle.

Softness triumphs over hardness, feebleness over strength. What is more malleable is always superior over that which is immoveable. This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them, of mastery through adaptation.

A terrace nine stories high begins with a pile of earth.