My words are very easy to understand and very easy to practice; but there is no one in the world who is able to understand and practice them.

Knowledge of the eternal is all-embracing. To be all-embracing leads to righteousness, which is majestic.

In the highest antiquity, the people did not know that there were rulers. In the next age they loved them and praised them. In the next they feared them; in the next they despised them.

The difficult problems in life always start off being simple. Great affairs always start off being small.

Go to the people. Learn from them. Live with them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. The best of leaders when the job is done, when the task is accomplished, the people will say we have done it ourselves.

The Way is hidden and nameless. Still only the Way nourishes and completes.

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.