Water benefits the ten thousand things and does not oppose them.
He who is attached to things will suffer much.
Dualistic thinking is a sickness.
When people see some things as good, other things become bad.
Without law or compulsion, men would dwell in harmony.
In the highest antiquity, the people did not know that there were rulers. In the next age they loved them and praised them. In the next they feared them; in the next they despised them.
The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors. It is through this that they suffer famine.
Good Government is not intrusive the people are hardly aware of it; the next best is felt yet loved; then comes that which is known and feared; the worst government is hated.
The reality of the building does not consist in the roof and walls, but in the space within to be lived in.
He who has no faith in others shall find no faith in them.
True humility involves opposites. The truly humble work in silence. Because they do not speak of their accomplishments, credit for them can never be taken away.
The net of heaven is very wide in its meshes, and yet it misses nothing.
Misfortune is the root of good fortune; good fortune gives birth to misfortune.
Virtue in its grandest aspect is neither more nor less than following reason.
Why separate your spiritual life and your practical life? To an integral being, there is no such distinction.
The master understands that the universe is forever out of control.
If you search everywhere, yet cannot find what you are seeking, it is because what you seek is already in your possession.
When you accept yourself, the Universe accepts you.
The Eternal generates the One. The One generates the Two. The Two generates the Three. The Three generates all things.
The heavy is the root of the light. The tranquil is the ruler of the hasty.