The Tao can't be perceived. Smaller than an electron, it contains uncountable galaxies. If powerful men and women could remain centered in the Tao, all things would be in harmony. The world would become a paradise. All people would be at peace, and the law would be written in their hearts. When you have names and forms, know that they are provisional. When you have institutions, know where their functions should end. Knowing when to stop, you can avoid any danger. All things end in the Tao as rivers flow into the sea.

To know that you do not know is the best. To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.

The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that. What is grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion.

People are hard to govern. The rulers interfere with too much. That is why people are hard to govern.

He does not praise himself - yet he is respectable.

Attending fully and becoming supple, Can you be as a newborn babe?

Great talents ripen late; the highest notes are hard to hear.