The whole world says that my Way is great like nothing else. It is great because it is like nothing else. If it were like everything else, it would long ago have become insignificant.

The best people are like water, which benefits all things and does not compete with them. It stays in lowly places that others reject. This is why it is so similar to the Way.

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

The Eternal generates the One. The One generates the Two. The Two generates the Three. The Three generates all things.

The sage does not act and therefore does not fail, does not seize and therefore does not lose.

Those who boast are not respected.

The female always surpasses the male with stillness. In her stillness she is yielding.