Keep behind, and you shall be put In front. Keep out, and you shall be kept in.
What the world reverences may not be treated with irreverence.
Good words shall gain you honour In the marketplace. Good deeds shall gain you friends among men.
He who, conscious of being strong, Is content to be weak,—he shall be a cynosure of men.
The Empire is a divine trust, and may not be ruled. He who rules, ruins. He who holds by force, loses.
Mighty is he who conquers himself.
He who Is content, has enough.
To the good I would be good. To the not-good I would also be good, in order to make them good.
If the government Is tolerant, the people will be without guile. If the government is meddling, there will be constant infraction of the law.
Recompense injury with kindness.
The wise man's freedom from grievance is because he will not regard grievances as such.
Of such were the pure and simple teachings of Lao Tzŭ. But it is upon the wondrous doctrine of Inaction that his claim to immortality is founded:—
Do nothing, and all things will be done.
I do nothing, and my people become good of their own accord.
Abandon wisdom and discard knowledge, and the people will be benefited an hundredfold.
The weak overcomes the strong, the soft overcomes the hard. All the world knows this; yet none can act up to it.
