If a man is crossing the river and an empty boat collides with his skiff, even though he is a bad tempered man he will not become very angry. But if he sees a man in the other boat he will scream and shout and curse at the man to steer clear. If you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world, no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you. Thus is the perfect man - his boat is empty.

Understanding that rests in what it does not understand is the finest.

If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind.

The fish trap exists because of the fish: once you have gotten the meanings, you can forget the words.

Either in conflict with others or in harmony with them, we go through life like a runaway horse, unable to stop.

Let everything be allowed to do what it naturally does, so that its nature will be satisfied.

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.