“Silence, and non action are the root of all things.”

All the fish needs is to get lost in the water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao.

Being is thoughtless-beyond and beneath all categories of thought. Expression is the realization of creative thought. Being is still; expression, moving. But then if I do not strive, who will?

The Way is to man as rivers and lakes are to fish, the natural condition of life.

Those who realise their folly are not true fools.

When people do not ignore what they should ignore, but ignore what they should not ignore, this is known as ignorance.

The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.

Standards are different for all things, so the standard set by man is by no means the only ‘certain’ standard. If you mistake what is relative for something certain, you have strayed far from the ultimate truth.

One whose inner being is fixed upon such greatness emits a Heavenly glow. Even though he has this Heavenly glow, others will see him as just a man. Someone who has reached this point will begin to be consistent.

Your mind must become one, do not try to understand with your ears but with your heart. Indeed, not with your heart but with your soul.

Sound intelligence promises victory in every battle.

Great knowledge is universal. Small knowledge is limited. Great words are inspiring; small words are chatter.

The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not.

The little child learns to speak, though it has no learned teachers – because it lives with those who know how to speak.

To go outside what your charge was, and to try to solve everything yourself, is dangerous.

If the Way is made clear, it is not the Way.

Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe.

Money is the fruit of evil, as often as the root of it.

If you don’t have the roots somewhere, it’s very difficult for people to work with you. Because you are a different person from them. They don’t know you, really. They don’t know how you feel.

Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.

To know and love one other human being is the root of all wisdom.

Though leaves are many, the root is one; Through all the lying days of my youth I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun Now I may wither into the truth.

Prudent, cautious self-control is wisdom’s root.

Though leaves are many, the root is one.

Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are necessary to the life of the affections as leaves are to the life of a tree. If they are wholly restrained, love will die at the roots.