Laozi

The superior student listens to the Way and follows it closely. The average student listens to the Way and follows some and some not. The lesser student listens to the Way and laughs out loud. If there were no laughter it would not be the Way.

A good person is the bad person's teacher. A bad person is the good person's task.

True words are not pleasing. Pleasing words are not true.

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

Correct becomes defect. Good becomes ominous. People's delusions have certainly lasted long.

The more clever and cunning people are, the stranger the events will be.

Of all things, none does not revere the Way and honor virtue. Reverence of the Way and honoring virtue were not demanded of them, but it is in their nature.

Never take over the world to tamper with it. Those who want to tamper with it are not fit to take over the world.

If Heaven were not clear it might rend. If Earth were not firm it might crumble.

All things flourish, and each returns to its source.

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

Things exalted then decay. This is going against the Way. What goes against the Way meets an early end.

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

If I have just an ounce of sense, I follow the great Way, and fear only to stray from it.

If Heaven and Earth are unable to persist, how could man?

When the great Tao is abandoned, benevolence and righteousness arise.

The greatest virtue is to follow the Way utterly.

Can you make your soul embrace the One and not lose it?

The sage embraces the one, and is an example to the world.

The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of all things.

Hold on to the ancient Way to master the present, and to learn the distant beginning.