A well-frog cannot imagine the ocean, nor can a summer insect conceive of ice. How then can a scholar understand the Tao? He is restricted by his own learning.
The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to Two. Two gives birth to Three. Three gives birth to all things. All things have their backs to the female and stand facing the male. When male and female combine, all things achieve harmony. Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.
Only the intelligent knows how to identify all things as one. . . . When one is at ease with himself, one is near Tao. This is to let Nature take its own course.
I don't own a scale, and Tao banned the word 'fat' from our house. If we eat too much, we say, 'I feel clogged up. '
No disaster is worse than being discontented.
The one who can dissolve her mind will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet.
Tao in the world is like a river flowing home to the sea.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature. The way of nature is unchanging. Knowing constancy is insight.
The hidden so-called scholars of old did not hide themselves and refuse to be seen. They did not close the door on their words and refuse to let them out. They did not shut away their wisdom and refuse to share it. But those times were all haywire. If it had been possible for them to act, they could have done great things, bringing all to Oneness without any sign of doing so. However, the times were not favorable and it was not possible, so they put down deep roots, remained still and waited. this was the Tao by which they survived.
The Tao is near and people seek it far away.
Tao is beyond words and beyond things. It is not expressed either in word or in silence. Where there is no longer word or silence Tao is apprehended.
The Tao belongs neither to knowing nor not knowing. Knowing is false understanding; not knowing is blind ignorance. If you really understand the Tao beyond doubt, it's like the empty sky. Why drag in right and wrong?
Pooh is able to accomplish what he does because he is simpleminded.
You are still guided by your expectations.
In caring for others and serving heaven, There is nothing like using restraint.
To find the Tao, there is nowhere you need to search. If it is not inside you, it is not the Tao.
Attending fully and becoming supple, Can you be as a newborn babe?
The follower of Tao is always flexible and adaptable to circumstance.
Acting without design, occupying oneself without making a business of it, finding the great in what is small and the many in the few, repaying injury with kindness, effecting difficult things while they are easy, and managing great things in their beginnings; this is the method of Tao.
Better stop short than fill to the brim. Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt. Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.