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

“There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it;—for there is nothing (so effectual) for which it can be changed.”

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

“If faces were different when lit from above or below -- what was a face? What was anything?”

“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.”

“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.”