There is no greater offence than harbouring desires. There is no greater disaster than discontent. There is no greater misfortune than wanting more.

. . . These are notions of the mind, which is like a knife, always chipping away at the Tao, trying to render it graspable and manageable. But that which is beyond form is ungraspable, and that which is beyond knowing is unmanageable. There is, however, this consolation: She who lets go of the knife will find the Tao at her fingertips.

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. Try to make people moral, and you lay the groundwork for vice.

He who gains a victory over other men is strong; but he who gains a victory over himself is all powerful.

The universe is deathless; Is deathless because, having no finite self, it stays infinite. A sound man by not advancing himself stays the further ahead of himself, By not confining himself to himself sustains himself outside himself: By never being an end in himself he endlessly becomes himself.

He who has achieved this state Is unconcerned with friends and enemies, With good and harm, with honor and disgrace. This therefore is the highest state of man.