If the Great Way perishes there will morality and duty. When cleverness and knowledge arise great lies will flourish. When relatives fall out with one another there will be filial duty and love. When states are in confusion there will be faithful servants.

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

One who is too insistent on his own views, finds few to agree with him.

The sage regards things as difficult, and thereby avoids difficulty.

Treat the large as the small and the few as the many.

The weak overcomes the strong. The soft overcomes the hard. Everybody in the world knows this, still nobody makes use of it.

Wise men hear and see as little children do.