A great country needs more people to serve it. A small country needs more people to serve. So, if both shall get what they need, the great country ought to yield.

He (the sage) wants all things to follow their own nature, but dares not act.

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

Knowing honor, but clinging to disgrace, you become the valley of the world.

The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to yin and yang. Yin and yang give birth to all things... The complete whole is the complete whole. So also is any part the complete whole... But forget about understanding and harmonizing and making all things one. The universe is already a harmonious oneness; just realize it.

As long as we have hope, we have direction, the energy to move, and the map to move by. We have a hundred alternatives, a thousand paths and an infinity of dreams. Hopeful, we are halfway to where we want to go; hopeless, we are lost forever.

Clay is molded to form a cup, But it is on its non-being that the utility of the cup depends. Doors and windows are cut out to make a room, But it is on its non-being that the utility of the room depends. Therefore turn being into advantage, and turn non-being into utility.