A multitude of words is tiresome, unlike remaining centered.

The softest in the world surpasses the hardest in the world.

Do not strive for the shine of jade, but clatter like stone.

Other people have more than they need, I alone seem wanting.

The great Way is very straight, but people prefer to deviate.

A sage is skilled at helping people without excluding anyone.

Without looking through the window, you can see Heaven's Way.

Peace and quiet are preferred. Victory should not be praised.

The sage is one with the world, and lives in harmony with it.

Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself.

Can you love or guide someone without any kind of expectation?

When you are one with loss, the loss is experienced willingly.

When equal armies battle, the grieving one will be victorious.

The most difficult in the world must be easy in its beginning.

The I Cing is a study in duality and what lies beyond duality.

Water uses itself to go beyond whatever it needs to go beyond.

Water always seeks the easiest path, the common level of life.

The rigid and big belong below. The soft and weak belong above.

Let people return to making knots on ropes, instead of writing.

The valley spirit never dies. It is called the mystical female.

Can you open and close the gate of Heaven and act like a woman?

Truly, only those who see illness as illness can avoid illness.

Those who are one with deprivation are deprived of deprivation.

If princes and kings were not exalted they might be overthrown.

When bitter enemies make peace, surely some bitterness remains.

If people are not afraid of dying, why threaten them with death?

Those who are right do not argue. Those who argue are not right.

Seek not happiness too greedily and be not fearful of happiness.

In the world there are four greats, and the king is one of them.

The most complete seems lacking. Yet in use it is not exhausted.

The more laws that are written, the more criminals are produced.

The Way is eternal. Until your last day, you are free from peril.

That which offers no resistance can enter where there is no space.

Filling all the way to the brim is not as good as halting in time.

That which offers no resistance, overcomes the hardest substances.

Those who know are not learned. Those who are learned do not know.

Other people are occupied, I alone am unwilling, like the outcast.

Without desire there is stillness, and the world settles by itself.

Heaven and Earth are not kind. They regard all things as offerings.

When leading people and serving Heaven, nothing exceeds moderation.

We can say the stars are moving because we have a relative context.

Without innocence, nothing can further, as they say in the I Ching.

Intelligent people know others. Enlightened people know themselves.

The sage regards things as difficult, and thereby avoids difficulty.

Moderation means prevention. Prevention means achieving much virtue.

People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.

When people do not dread authorities, then a greater dread descends.

Conquering the world and changing it, I do not think it can succeed.

Displaying riches and titles with pride brings about one's downfall.

If you worry more for others' beliefs, then you will be their slave.

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