Laozi

Take care with the end as you do with the beginning

Accomplish but do not boast, accomplish without show, accomplish without arrogance, accomplish without grabbing, accomplish without forcing.

If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve

To become learned, each day add something. To become enlightened, each day drop something

Softness triumphs over hardness, feebleness over strength. What is more malleable is always superior over that which is immoveable. This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them, of mastery through adaptation.

The leader's main job is to make themselves obsolete.

The sage knows without traveling, perceives without looking, completes without acting.

Because he (the Sage) opposes no one, no one in the world can oppose him.

The sage does not act and therefore does not fail, does not seize and therefore does not lose.

The sage's Way is to act and not to contend.

The sage is not ill, because he sees illness as illness.

The Way of Heaven does not complete, and yet it skillfully achieves victory. It does not speak, and yet it skillfully responds to things. It comes to you without your invitation.

These possessions of a simpleton being the three I choose and cherish: to care, to be fair, to be humble.

The sage wears coarse clothes, concealing jade.

The sage attends to the belly, and not to what he sees.

He (the Sage) does not show off, therefore he shines.

When the sage stands above people, they are not oppressed. When he leads people, they are not obstructed. The world will exalt him and not grow tired of him.

To realize that our knowledge is ignorance, This is a noble insight. To regard our ignorance as knowledge, This is mental sickness. Only when we are sick of the sickness Shall we cease to be sick. The Sage is not sick, being sick of sickness; This is the secret of health.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

A government can be compared to our lungs. Our lungs are best when we don't realize they are helping us breathe. It is when we are constantly aware of our lungs that we know they have come down with an illness.

Know the white, But keep the black, Be an example to the world! Being an example to the world, Ever true and unwavering, Return to the infinite.