When someone is thirsty they focus on finding water; but when they've satisfied their thirst, they turn their back on the well. After an orange is squeezed, it's thrown away. People esteem us and depend on us when we inspire hope; but once satisfied, gratitude, good behavior, and respect soon becomes forgotten. Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one—much better to have people need us than thank us. Always keep hope alive without completely satisfying it.

The Tao is like an empty bowl,
Used but never used up.
Those who use it never become full again.
And deep – the source of the ten thousand things.
It blunts sharp edges,
Unties all tangles,
Softens all glare.
One with the dust,
It unites the world into one whole.
It’s like a deep pool that never dries up,
Hidden deep but always here.
Was it too the child of something else?
Or the common ancestor of all,
The father of all things?

Wisdom and virtue are to our happiness like our hands and eyes are to our bodies. Because they represent the essence of immortal goodness, when we align with them, that goodness channels through us and that's what we become. However, one without the other means little. A person with skill but not understanding is like a world without light. A mind with understanding but without confident courage becomes useless.

Less fame, less fighting,
Less praise, less competition,
Less treasure, less theft,
Less desire, less delusion –
Therefore the wise leader begins by
Opening minds, emptying desires;
Weakening ambition, strengthening resolve,
Preventing external interference.
They do not-doing
And all goes well.

Putting all our cards on the table face up diminishes our achievements, welcomes frivolous criticism, and makes us more vulnerable to failure. When we clearly describe a new venture too early, it attracts criticism and competition and—if it fails—can become doubly disastrous. Instead, mix a little mystery into everything you say and do, hold decisions in suspense for a time, and don't explain things too clearly. By holding decisions in check without declaring conclusions too soon, you create anticipation, cultivate admiration, wonder, and respect. "Cautious silence is the sacred sanctuary of worldly wisdom."

When seduced by an image of beauty,
We create ugliness.
If that becomes beautiful, this becomes ugly.
When impressed by an image of goodness,
We create badness.
If this becomes good, that becomes bad.

Form & emptiness arise together:
Difficult & easy complement each other,
Long & short shape each other,
High & low contrast each other,
Note & noise harmonize each other,
First & last, before & after, back & front –
All follow each other.

Therefore the wise
Perform effortless deeds,
Practice wordless teachings,
Teach without saying anything.
And without grasping and fixation,
As the ten thousand things arise and dissolve,
They hold without owning,
Create without claiming,
Work without taking credit,
Accomplish without attachment.

What arises lasts forever because
Letting it go makes it stay.

Happiness requires a middle way path that includes both mind and spirit, intellect and feeling, strategy and emotion, reason and intuition, character and practical action. One without the other only creates unhappiness and failure.

A Path that can be explained
Isn’t a complete path.
Words that become names
Are only concepts, not real things.
The unnamed is the source of everything in heaven & on earth.
Not wanting anything to be different,
We see the inner essence.
Always wanting, we are blinded
And only see what we want.
Nameable and un-nameable;
The same source and nature but two words;
Deeper than any mystery,
Doorway to the essence of all true understanding.

The rate of change increases with time, population density, and technological advances. For an individual to successfully make their way in today's world requires more wisdom than the Seven Sages of ancient Greece combined. We need more skill to deal with just one person than was needed to deal with an entire population in former times.