64 What is rooted is easy to nourish.What is recent is easy to correct.What is brittle is easy to break.What is small is easy to scatter. Prevent trouble before it arises.Put things in order before they exist. The giant pine tree grows from a tiny sprout.The journey of a thousand milesstarts from…
63 Act without doing; work without effort. Think of the small as large and the few as many. Confront the difficult while it is still easy; accomplish the great task by a series of small acts. The Master never reaches for the great; thus she achieves greatness. When she runs into a difficulty, she…
62 The Tao is the center of the universe,the good man’s treasure,the bad man’s refuge. Honors can be bought with fine words,respect can be won with good deeds;but the Tao is beyond all value,and no one can achieve it. Thus, when a new leader is chosen,don’t offer to help himwith your wealth or your…
61 When a country obtains great power,it becomes like the sea:all streams run downward into it.The more powerful it grows,the greater the need for humility.Humility means trusting the Tao,thus never needing to be defensive. A great nation is like a great man:When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.Having realized it, he admits it.Having…
60 Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking. Center your country in the Tao and evil will have no power. Not that it isn’t there, but you’ll be able to step out of its way. Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear…
59 For governing a country well there is nothing better than moderation. The mark of a moderate man/woman is freedom from his own ideas. Tolerant like the sky, all-pervading like sunlight, firm like a mountain, supple like a tree in the wind,…
58 If a country is governed with tolerance,the people are comfortable and honest.If a country is governed with repression,the people are depressed and crafty. When the will to power is in charge,the higher the ideals, the lower the results.Try to make people happy,and you lay the groundwork for misery.Try to make people moral,and you…
57 If you want to be a great leader, you must learn to follow the Tao. Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself. The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. The more weapons you have, the less secure people will…
56 Those who know don’t talk.Those who talk don’t know. Close your mouth, block off your senses, blunt your sharpness, untie your knots, soften your glare, settle your dust. This is the primal identity. Be like the Tao. It can’t be approached or withdrawn from,benefited or harmed,honored or brought into disgrace.It gives itself…
55 He who is in harmony with the Tao is like a newborn child. Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak, but its grip is powerful. It doesn’t know about the union of male and female, yet its penis can stand erect, so intense is its vital power. It can scream its head…
