Although most people spend their entire lives following this biological impulse (i.e. the sex drive), it is only a tiny portion of our beings. . . . If we remain obsessed with seeds and eggs, we are married to the fertile reproductive valley of the Mysterious Mother but not to her immeasurable heart and all-knowing mind.

People are difficult to rule, because of their knowledge.

When the hares have all been caught, the hunting dogs are cooked.

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.

Those who praise victory relish manslaughter. Those who relish manslaughter cannot reach their goals in the world.

The highest benevolence acts without purpose.

In work, do what you enjoy.