Wisdom about Taoism.

The Tao, considered as unchanging, has no name.

Governing a great state is like cooking small fish.

Men come forth and live; they enter (again) and die.

Words that are strictly true seem to be paradoxical.

The soft overcomes the hard; and the weak the strong.

Gravity is the root of lightness; stillness, the ruler of movement.

It is by avoiding such indulgence that such weariness does not arise.

I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God.

The great Tao (or way) is very level and easy; but people love the by-ways.

All-pervading is the Great Tao! It may be found on the left hand and on the right.

The sage has no invariable mind of his own; he makes the mind of the people his mind.

Of every ten three are ministers of life (to themselves); and three are ministers of death.

(The Tao) which originated all under the sky is to be considered as the mother of them all.

I would make the people return to the use of knotted cords (instead of the written characters).

In the Way of Heaven, there is no partiality of love; it is always on the side of the good man.

Therefore the place of what is firm and strong is below, and that of what is soft and weak is above.

The movement of the Tao By contraries proceeds; And weakness marks the course Of Tao's mighty deeds.

If princes and kings were able to maintain it, all things would of themselves be transformed by them.

How do I know that this effect is sure to hold thus all under the sky? By this (method of observation).

When the people do not fear what they ought to fear, that which is their great dread will come on them.

Who is content Needs fear no shame. Who knows to stop Incurs no blame. From danger free Long live shall he.

There are few in the world who attain to the teaching without words, and the advantage arising from non-action.

When these two do not injuriously affect each other, their good influences converge in the virtue (of the Tao).

And when (one with the highest excellence) does not wrangle (about his low position), no one finds fault with him.

Fishes should not be taken from the deep; instruments for the profit of a state should not be shown to the people.

Thus we may see, Who cleaves to fame Rejects what is more great; Who loves large stores Gives up the richer state.

Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.

Who can take his own superabundance and therewith serve all under heaven? Only he who is in possession of the Tao!

The relation of the Tao to all the world is like that of the great rivers and seas to the streams from the valleys.

The Tao in its regular course does nothing (for the sake of doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do.

Thus it is that firmness and strength are the concomitants of death; softness and weakness, the concomitants of life.

He who knows (the Tao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it.

To know and yet (think) we do not know is the highest (attainment); not to know (and yet think) we do know is a disease.

Wherever a host is stationed, briars and thorns spring up. In the sequence of great armies there are sure to be bad years.

Constant action overcomes cold; being still overcomes heat. Purity and stillness give the correct law to all under heaven.

With all the sharpness of the Way of Heaven, it injures not; with all the doing in the way of the sage he does not strive.

He who does not fail in the requirements of his position, continues long; he who dies and yet does not perish, has longevity.

All things under heaven sprang from It as existing (and named); that existence sprang from It as non-existent (and not named).

This honouring of the Tao and exalting of its operation is not the result of any ordination, but always a spontaneous tribute.

Let them not thoughtlessly indulge themselves in their ordinary life; let them not act as if weary of what that life depends on.

That saying of the ancients that 'the partial becomes complete' was not vainly spoken:—all real completion is comprehended under it.

For regulating the human (in our constitution) and rendering the (proper) service to the heavenly, there is nothing like moderation.

The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.

Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong, but no one is able to carry it out in practice.

The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors. It is through this that they suffer famine.

Tao has of all things the most honoured place. No treasures give good men so rich a grace; Bad men it guards, and doth their ill efface.

Favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared; honour and great calamity, to be regarded as personal conditions (of the same kind).

The perception of what is small is (the secret of) clear-sightedness; the guarding of what is soft and tender is (the secret of) strength.