The progress of the Way seems retreating.

If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you aren't afraid of dying, there is nothing you can't achieve. Trying to control the future is like trying to take the master carpenter's place. When you handle the master carpenter's tools, chances are that you'll cut your hand.

Clay is fashioned into vessels; it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends. Doors and windows are cut out to make a dwelling, and on the empty space within, its use depends. Thus, while the existence of things may be good, it is the non-existence in them that makes them serviceable.

A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. Thus by nature's own decree, the soft and gentle are triumphant.

A journey of a thousand leagues begins beneath one's feet.

Nothing and no one in the world is valuable or worthless.

Other people have more than they need, I alone seem wanting.