Knowing the bright, but clinging to the dark, you become a model to the world.

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 separate parts make no carriage.

We desire to understand the world by giving names to the things we see, but these things are only the effects of something subtle.

The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world. Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.

The master does his job and then stops. He understands that the universe is forever out of control, and that trying to dominate events goes against the current of the Tao.

The leader is a teacher who succeeds without taking credit. And, because credit is not taken, credit is received.