Must one dread what others dread?

Rushing into action, you fail. Trying to grasp things, you lose them. Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe.

Solve it before it happens. Order it before chaos emerges.

Approach your own inner life with a loving quality that accepts who you are without trying to change who you are.

The Way of Heaven does not complete, and yet it skillfully achieves victory. It does not speak, and yet it skillfully responds to things. It comes to you without your invitation.

When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace, they can be kept from separating.

Use justice to rule a country. Use surprise to wage war. Use non-action to govern the world.