The truly great ones rely on substance, and not on surface, hold on to the fruit, and not to the flower.

In lightness the root is lost. In haste the ruler is lost.

Those who of old were good practicers of Tao did not use it to make people bright, but rather used it to make them simple.

There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.

To know you have enough is to be rich.

Man, when living, is soft and tender; when dead, he is hard and tough. All animals and plants when living are tender and delicate; when dead they become withered and dry. Therefore it is said: the hard and tough are parts of death; the soft and tender are parts of life.

. . . the mind is desperate to fix the river {of events} in place: Possessed by ideas of the past, preoccupied with images of the future, it overlooks the plain truth of the moment.