If you go searching for the Great Creator, you will come back empty-handed. The source of the universe is ultimately unknowable, a great invisible river flowing forever through a vast and fertile valley. Silent and uncreated, it creates all things.

He (the Sage) does not show off, therefore he shines.

The sage avoids extremity, excess, and extravagance.

Other people are joyous, like on the feast of the ox, like on the way up to the terrace in the spring. I alone am inert, giving no sign, like a newborn baby who has not learned to smile.

Surrender your self-interest. Love others as much as you love yourself. Then you can be entrusted with all things under heaven.

When the great Tao is abandoned, benevolence and righteousness arise.

Be as the still mountain; Move like the great river.