When the government is quite unobtrusive, people are indeed pure. When the government is quite prying, people are indeed conniving.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step and if that step is the right step, it becomes the last step.

The highest virtue seems as low as a valley.

Worlds and particles, bodies and beings, time and space: All are transient expressions of the Tao.

If one desires to receive one must first give. This is called profound understanding.

. . . the mind is desperate to fix the river {of events} in place: Possessed by ideas of the past, preoccupied with images of the future, it overlooks the plain truth of the moment.

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