“If I had just a little bit of wisdom I should walk the great path and fear only straying from it.”

“Then appeared wisdom and shrewdness, and there ensued great hypocrisy.”

“What makes me liable to great calamity is my having the body (which I call myself); if I had not the body, what great calamity could come to me?”

“Thus it is said:The path into the light seems dark,the path forward seems to go back,the direct path seems long,true power seems weak,true purity seems tarnished,true steadfastness seems changeable,true clarity seems obscure,the greatest are seems unsophisticated,the greatest love seems indifferent,the greatest wisdom seems childish.The Tao is nowhere to be found.Yet it nourishes and completes all things.”

“Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”

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

“Have done with learning,And you will have no more vexation.How great is the difference between "eh" and "o"?What is the distinction between "good" and "evil"?Must I fear what others fear?What abysmal nonsense this is!All men are joyous and beaming,As though feasting upon a sacrificial ox,As though mounting the Spring Terrace;I alone am placid and give no sign,Like a babe which has not yet smiled.I alone am forlorn as one who has no home to return to.All men have enough and to spare:I alone appear to possess nothing.What a fool I am!What a muddled mind I have!All men are bright, bright:I alone am dim, dim.All men are sharp, sharp:I alone am mum, mum!Bland like the ocean,Aimless like the wafting gale.All men settle down in their grooves:I alone am stubborn and remain outside.But wherein I am most different from others isIn knowing to take sustenance from my Mother!”