Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness
All can know good as good only because there is evil.
The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places people reject and so is like the Tao.
Better stop short than fill to the brim.
Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.
Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.
Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow.
Retire when the work is done.
This is the way of heaven.
Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape the clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes that make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.
Who can wait quietly while the mud settles?
Who can remain still until the moment of action?
Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight;
Empty and be full;
Wear out and be new;
Have little and gain;
Have much and be confused.
To talk little is natural.
High winds do not last all morning.
Heavy rain does not last all day,
Why is this? Heaven and earth!
If heaven and earth cannot make things last forever,
How is it possible for us?
Those who stand on tiptoe are not steady.
Those who stride cannot maintain the pace.
Those who put on a show are not enlightened,
Those who are self-righteous are not respected.
Those who boast achieve nothing.
Those who brag will not endure.
According to the followers of the Tao,
“These are unnecessary food and baggage.”
They do not bring happiness.
Therefore followers of the Tao avoid them.
Knowing others is wisdom;
Knowing the self is enlightenment.
Mastering others requires force;
Mastering the self requires strength.
Without going outside, you may know the whole world.
Without looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven.
The farther you go, the less you know.
Thus the wise know without traveling;
See without looking;
Work without doing.
In the pursuit of learning, something is acquired every day.
In the pursuit of the Tao, every day something is relinquished.
Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
The world is governed by letting things take their course.
It cannot be governed through interference.
Keep your mouth shut,
Guard the senses,
And life is always full.
Open your mouth,
Always be busy,
And life is beyond hope.
Those who know do not talk,
Those who talk do not know.
Close your mouth.
Guard your senses.
Temper your sharpness.
Simplify your problems.
Mask your brightness.
Be at one with the dust of the earth.
This is primal uniform.
Those who have achieved this state
Do not distinguish between friends and enemies,
Between good and harm, between honor and disgrace.
This is the highest state of being.
Therefore those who would conquer must yield,
And those who conquer do so through yielding.
Practice non-action.
Work without doing.
Taste the tasteless.
Magnify the small, increase the few.
Reward bitterness with care.
See simplicity in the complicated.
Achieve greatness in small things.
In the universe the difficult things are done as though they were easy.
In the universe great acts are made up of small deeds.
The wise do not attempt anything very big.
And thus achieve greatness.
Easy promises make for little trust.
Taking things lightly results in great difficulty.
Because the wise always confornt difficulties.
They never experience them.
Peace is easily maintained;
Trouble is easily overcome before it starts.
The brittle is easily shattered;
The small is easily scattered.
Deal with things before they happen.
Put things in order before there is confusion.
A tree as great as a man’s embrace springs from a small shoot;
A terrace nine stories high begins with a pile of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles starts under one’s feet.
Those who act defeat their own purpose;
Those who grasp lose.
The wise do not act and so are not defeated.
They do not grasp and therefore do not lose.
People usually fail when they are on the verge of success.
So give as much care to the end as to the beginning;
Then there will be no failure.
Therefore the wise seek freedom from desire.
They do not collect precious things.
They learn not to hold on to ideas.
They bring people back to what they have lost.
They help the ten thousand things find their own nature,
Yet they refrain from action.
Why is the sea king of a hundred streams?
Because it lies below them.
Therefore it is the king of a hundred streams.
Because you do not compete,
You will not have competition.
Heaven’s net is cast wide.
Though its meshes are coarse, nothing slips through.
We are born gentle and weak, but at death are stiff and hard.
Green plants are tender and filled with sap.
At their death they are withered and dry.
Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.
Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.
A tree that is unbending is easily broken.
The hard and strong will fall.
The soft and weak will overcome.