My own words are not the medicine, but a prescription; not the destination, but a map to help you reach it. When you get there, quiet your mind and close your mouth. Don't analyze the Tao. Strive instead to live it: silently, undividedly, with your whole harmonious being.

The best form of leadership is to be conscious of the leadership potential with the followers and to let them unleash this potential in a spontaneous way. When a great leader accomplishes this task with effortless ease, the followers say, "We did it ourselves."

Great indeed is the sublimity of the creative, to which all beings owe their beginning and which permeates all heaven.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

The Tao of the sage is work without effort.

I am good to people who are good. I am also good to people who are not good. Because Virtue is goodness.

Be merciful, moderate, and modest.