The more power you have, the more important it is to stick to non-action. A good ruler has the patience to refrain from action before knowing exactly what to do, and then to do as little as possible. Even for great problems, small solutions are usually the safest – and the most efficient. Big solutions cause new problems of equal size.

The body is vulnerable. The more important it is to us, the more vulnerable we will be.

The workings of the Way are hidden behind what we can observe. It was present at the dawn of time and the birth of the universe, but it’s visible only through what has been created out of it, in accordance with it: the whole world and all its creatures. Tao is the Way the universe works.

In Lao Tzu’s use of the word, inner balance and steadfastness is implied, somewhat like the keel of a boat that’s unaffected by the waves on the sea. That’s how the human mind should be – calm in whatever turmoil surrounds it, confident even in a rain of urgent questions. The answers are to be found in that calm.

Words and the thoughts behind them may be clever, perhaps inspired, but still there can be enough of them. Then it’s better to take it all in silently. We don’t need to describe everything we experience, or to express all that we learn. Words are mere shadows. If we focus on them we may lose sight of the reality they try to imitate. Instead, we

The greatest virtue of such a respectful attitude is its gentleness, its refusal to use the power at hand. This is in accordance with Tao, the Way, which acts in the same discreet manner. No virtue is greater than to be like Tao.

The joy of giving in to greed is quickly replaced by the disappointment of its minute reward. That’s the trap of longing. Few things are as pleasing when we get them, as they were tempting when we longed for them.

We must learn the deep and lasting pleasure of discovering how much it is that we do not need. Thereby we also learn how much we already have, and how precious that is.

It’s probably truer now, than ever before in human history. What we want is not what we need. What we long for makes us blind to what we have. What we are is not what we pretend to be. Only what we cease to cover up, we can see as it really is. Lao Tzu tells us that there’s nothing we have to do to understand him. We will find the Way if we stop