Nations and peoples of the world did not come together as one when an existential threat faced all humanity.

There’s no need for Laozi to convince you of anything, for he’s not trying to sell you anything. You can take his words or leave them; it’s all the same to him.

A full moon can only wane; from the peak of the mountain there’s nowhere to go but down.

“I do nothing, and the people harmonize on their own; I stay serene, and the people find their own plenty; I desire nothing, and the people uncarve themselves.”

It’s perfectly okay to take pride in your work, to celebrate it, even, for a moment, but the only way to make that joy last is to retire immediately, to not insist on overstaying the moment.

the most important knowledge is never reducible to words.

Why is the mighty ocean the king of all streams? Because it lies below all of them.

Laozi and Zhuangzi both emphasize sincerity of emotion, the primacy of how it feels over how it looks, but like the eternal dance of beauty and terror, two aspects of the same Providence, there is a grand mystery here in the pair of contrasting sentiments.

have a conversation with his text, through which the readers must discover their own way.