“Your inner being guard, and keep it free.”

“Simplicity has no name is free of desires. Being free of desires it is tranquil. And the world will be at peace of it's own accord.”

“We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness insidethat holds whatever we want.We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner spacethat makes it livable.We work with being, but non-being is what we use.”

“Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.”

“The (state of) vacancy should be brought to the utmost degree, and that of stillness guarded with unwearying vigour.”

“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.”

“The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness.”