"Then who do you think is a sage?", [the minister asked.] Confucius would not be hurried, so he waited until the minister calmed down again and replied, "Maybe far away in the West is a person who doesn’t talk about the art of government and yet his country is orderly and peaceful. He rarely speaks about promises but he is trusted by all. He does not use force, so everything runs smoothly. His heart is open and his actions are spontaneous. His subjects don't even know what to call him. I suspect he is a sage, but that he is truly a sage I would not know.… Does it really matter if someone is recognized as a sage or not? If you are truly honest, sincere, and upright in everything you do, do you need others to acknowledge your virtues to make you virtuous?"

"If you can see intention, then you need not use speech to communicate. The sage does not need to talk to people to understand their intent. Moreover, they do not need to use words to communicate their own intent. This is called saying nothing. The enlightened person can also sense the truth without going through deduction or reasoning. This is called knowing nothing and yet knowing all. Nan-kuo-tzu appears as if he does not see, does not hear, and does not know. However, he sees all, hears all, and knows all. For him, there is no separation between seeing and not seeing, hearing and not hearing, acting and not acting, and knowing and not knowing."

"People who are attracted to the external world are always looking for something new and wonderful that will satisfy their senses. However, only people who look into themselves will find true satisfaction."

"Travel is such a wonderful experience! Especially when you forget you are traveling. Then you will enjoy whatever you see and do. Those who look into themselves when they travel will not think about what they see. In fact, there is no distinction between the viewer and the seen. You experience everything with the totality of yourself, so that every blade of grass, every mountain, every lake is alive and is a part of you."

"People who are beginning to weaken will push their bodies to the limit. People who are about to lose their minds will become unusually argumentative. This is because they are not willing to admit that all things must end, and they want to make a show of their strength to cover their weakness. On the other hand, enlightened persons accept the natural course of things. They do not force their bodies to display strength or their minds to show cleverness. Knowing that there are some things that they can’t fight, they accept what comes. That is why they can embrace life and accept death."

"A person with a mind cannot know; If you can point to it, then you cannot reach it; You can never finish dividing something; A shadow cannot move; A single hair can hold up a thousand stones; A white horse is not a horse; An orphaned calf has never had a mother."

"A wise ruler does not let personal grudges cloud his judgment of people’s abilities. Moreover, a good ruler always thinks about the welfare of his country first and his personal needs second."

"Thirty spokes converge on a single hub,"

"We look for it but do not see it;"

"Abolish sagehood and abandon cunning,"

"There was something featureless yet complete,"

"The Way is eternally nameless."

"Rippling is the Way, flowing left and right!"

"If feudal lords and kings were ever noble and thereby exalted, they would be likely to fall."

"Striving for an excess of praise, one ends up without praise."

"Reversal is the movement of the Way;"

"The Way gave birth to unity, Unity gave birth to duality, Duality gave birth to trinity, Trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures."

"Person or property, which is dearer?"

"No guilt is greater than giving in to desire,"

"Without going out-of-doors,"

"The myriad creatures respect the Way and esteem integrity."

"The fields are choked with weeds,"

"Cultivated in the person, integrity is true."

"When government is anarchic, the people are honest;"

"Only through thrift can one be prepared;"

"What was the reason for the ancients"

"Act before there is a problem;"

"A good warrior is not bellicose,"

"My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practise; but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practise them."

"To realize that you do not understand is a virtue;"

"The Way of heaven"

"Heaven’s net is vast;"

"If the people never fear death, what is the purpose of threatening to kill them?"

"The Way of heaven reduces surplus to make up for scarcity;"

"The Way of heaven is impartial, yet is always with the good person."

"The sage does not hoard."

"Whoever speaks is not wise, whoever is wise always keep silence; I hear this message from Laozi. If Laozi is a wise man, why did he himself write Dao De Jing which has five thousand words?"

"Next to the Bible and the Bhagavad Gītā, the Tao Te Ching is the most translated book in the world. Well over a hundred different renditions of the Taoist classic have been made into English alone, not to mention the dozens in German, French, Italian, Dutch, Latin, and other European languages. There are several reasons for the superabundance of translations. The first is that the Tao Te Ching is considered to be the fundamental text of both philosophical and religious Taoism. Indeed, the Tao, or Way, which is at the heart of the Tao Te Ching, is also the centerpiece of all Chinese religion and thought. Naturally, different schools and sects bring somewhat different slants to the Tao, but all subscribe to the notion that there is a single, overarching Way that encompasses everything in the universe. As such, the Tao Te Ching shares crucial points of similarity with other major religious scriptures the world over."

"The valley spirit never dies—"

"Heaven and earth are inhumane;"

"The Way is empty,"

"When all under heaven know beauty as beauty,"

"The sage, in ruling,..."

"If wealth and honor make you haughty,"