A vessel is formed from a lump of clay with care, however, it is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.

Knowing ignorance is strength; ignoring knowledge is sickness.

If you want to shrink something, you must first allow it to expand. If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to flourish. If you want to take something, you must first allow it to be given. This is called the subtler perception of the way things are. The soft overcomes the hard. The slow overcomes the fast. Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results.

Those who would take over the earth and shape it to their will, never, I notice succeed.

The truth often sounds paradoxical.

It is better to do one's own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

True words seem false.