1. The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. Conceived of as having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth; conceived of as having a name, it is the Mother of all things.

Always without desire we must be found, if its deep mystery we would sound; but if desire always within us be, its outer fringe is all that we shall see.

Under these two aspects, it is really the same. Together we call them the Mystery. Where the Mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful.

8. The highest excellence is like that of water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving to the contrary, the low place which all men dislike. Hence its way is near to that of the Tao.

The excellence of a dwelling is in its suitability to the place, that of the mind is in its stillness and depth; that of associations is in their being with the virtuous; that of government is in its securing good order; that of the conduct of affairs is in its ability; and that of the movements is in its timeliness. And when one with such excellence does not contend with anyone, no blame is made against him.

11. The thirty spokes unite in the one nave; but it is on the empty space for the axle that the use of the wheel depends. Clay is fashioned into vessels; but it is on their empty hollow that their use depends. The door and windows are cut out from the walls of an apartment; but it is on the empty space within that its use depends. Therefore, what has a positive existence serves for profitable adaptation, and what has not that for actual usefulness.

16. The state of vacancy should be brought to the utmost degree, and that of stillness guarded with unwearying vigor. All things alike go through their processes of activity, and then we see them return to their original state. When things in the vegetable world have displayed their luxuriant growth, we see each of them return to its root. This return to their root is what we call the state of stillness; and that stillness may be called a reporting that they have fulfilled their appointed end.

76. Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. So it is with all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered. Thus it is that firmness and strength are the companions of death; softness and weakness, the companions of life.

Hence he who puts forth his strength in arms, in the field, does not win; and a tree of strong wood is cut down. The firm and strong take the lower place, and the soft and weak take the higher.

78. There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it; for there is nothing so suited to take its place. Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong, but no one can practice it.

81. Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those who are skilled in the Tao do not dispute; those who dispute are not skilled in it. Those who know the Tao are not extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it. The sage does not accumulate for himself. The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself.