The best way to live / is to be like water / For water benefits all things / and goes against none of them.

The sage desires no desire, does not value rare treasures, learns without learning, recovers what people have left behind.

If you overesteem great men, people become powerless. If you overvalue possessions, people begin to steal. The Master leads by emptying people's minds and filling their cores, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve. He helps people lose everything they know, everything they desire, and creates confusion in those who think that they know. Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.

Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice. Therefore the Master remains serene in the midst of sorrow. Evil cannot enter his heart. Because he has given up helping, he is people's greatest help. True words seem paradoxical.

If one desires to receive one must first give. This is called profound understanding.

Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not dominate it over them.

The Tao is like a well; used but never used up.