We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use.

It is as though he listened and such listening as his enfolds us in silence in which at last we begin to hear what we are meant to be.

Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself.

He does not feel pity for himself - thus he can successfully develop.

The best soldier does not attack. The superior fighter succeeds without violence. The greatest conqueror wins without struggle. The most successful manager leads without dictating. This is intelligent non aggressiveness.

To conquer others is to have power, to conquer yourself is to know the way.

The best people are like water, which benefits all things and does not compete with them. It stays in lowly places that others reject. This is why it is so similar to the Way.