The thoughtful and perceptive become the most difficult to impress. They quickly see through exaggeration and salespersonship but also have a deep appreciation for the authentic and true. You can train this genuine good taste like education trains the intellect and those trained in this way immediately attract respect. Only goodness satisfies a great mind and even the most skilled scam artists tremble before this kind of perceptive spirit. To know and associate with someone who cultivates this kind of integrity and taste creates great good fortune. You can learn deep lessons leading to great happiness and a meaningful life just by identifying and watching people like this.

It’s easy to guide a peaceful situation,
Easy to stop trouble before it starts,
Easy to break something when still fragile,
Easy to get rid of something when still small,
Easy to get clear before things get complicated and confused.

As a giant tree grows from a small seed,
And a tall building rises from a shovelful of earth,
Our 10,000 mile journeys begin with one step.
But rushing into action fails,
And grasping makes things slip away.

The wise therefore let things take their course and nothing goes wrong,
Don’t hold on and nothing is lost.
Instead of ruining things when on the verge of success,
They mind the end as the beginning,
The journey as the goal.

The wise only want not to want
And care nothing for hard won treasures.
They study what no one else studies
And turn back to the places
Others have gone on from.
They go along with things as they are
Without presuming to act.

Doing harm to yourself in order to please another does not describe true compassion but rather a perverted understanding. True compassion requires intelligence and understanding of the entire situation. Creating pain for ourselves in order to calm or give pleasure to another can help a small segment but harm the whole. Instead, look ahead and avoid problems whenever possible. Unless clearly beneficial, neither give nor receive bad news. Protect your ears from the sick sweetness of flattery, the perverse bitterness of scandal, the depressing entertainment of sensationalist bad news. (cf. #163)

Do what can’t be done by doing things,
Let action be effortless.
Make what can’t be made by making things,
Savor the tasteless.
Treat the small as large,
The few as many.
Repay wrongs with the Power of Goodness.

Work on problems before they become big,
Study the complicated while it’s still obvious.
The biggest challenge starts out easy,
The most renowned projects
Begin small and uncomplicated.

Since taking things too lightly creates big problems
And thinking things too easy makes them difficult,
The wise don’t make much ado about anything,
Don’t take to heart what they can throw over their shoulders,
Don’t believe or like lightly.
By never attempting great ventures,
They accomplish great goals.

Most prefer imitation to invention and in that way secure an inferior place in their profession, in their society, and in history. They choose the easier path of copying and find it easier but look to the world like parrots and unknowingly build a glass ceiling they will never be able to rise above. Those with the courage to take chances and try new ventures and ideas, however, immediately gain advantage and invite fame and recognition. If both first and successful, that success becomes twice as impressive.

The Tao is the hidden center of all things.
Treasured by the good, it brings refuge to the bad.

Beautiful words can buy honor,
Good deeds can buy respect -
Even the most foolish can claim these.
Basic goodness though has no price and is here for all.
Though people stray far from this path,
It will never abandon them.

Therefore when a leader is empowered,
Don’t bother with material gifts or fine words.
Offer instead stillness and uncontrived awareness.

This is why the Tao is revered now and since ancient times:
When looked for, it appears;
When lost, mistaken, and confused;
It begins again fresh and pure.

We're only as successful as our support, as our tools allow. Skill without the means of using it doesn't go far. Most find choosing and finding physical tools much easier than finding the best associates, partners, assistants, employees. Too often, factors unrelated to skill influence these decisions—for example, history's countless and disastrous examples of nepotism. Some worry that subordinates will outshine them and for this reason choose inferior support. Some make these bad choices from a misguided and inappropriate sense of compassion.

A great country is like the sea,
Like a watershed that all rivers flow down toward.
The feminine of the world,
It joins everything together
Overcoming aggression with humility, stillness, and peace.

In this way a great country
Wins over smaller and weaker ones
With respect and appreciation.
Not threatened, smaller countries support and sustain the larger
Winning patronage and protection
Like the feminine drawing in the male.

They both lie low to be on top,
Accomplish by surrendering.

Mediocrity is comforting but cowardly. It can avoid stress but pays by also avoiding success. Fear fools us into mistaking comfort for happiness. By avoiding challenge we only assure our own failure. The great revel in challenge, eschew mediocrity, and excel in the most excellent. They prefer the more difficult, see problems as opportunities, and easily inspire admiration and good will. To be excellent in little, unimportant ways is to be unimportant with little excellence. Much better to pull out the stops and seize the day.

Manage a big project
With the same care and attention
As cooking a small fish.

Always follow the Tao
And evil loses strength,
Outside nothing troubles,
Inside, nothing frightens,
Obstacles lose power
And transform into opportunity.

Decision-making and sound judgment based on careful reasoning brings us halfway to success. Some—born with this natural advantage—avoiding everything frivolous, prejudicial, and lacking forethought, rise high in social, organizational, and political influence. Their innate common sense takes them to respected and deserved positions of leadership.

In looking after yourself
And caring for others,
Nothing surpasses the gardening of spirit.

Gathered early, this power doubles
And prevents any reckless use of mind.
It brings freedom from our own ideas
And the knowing of what to accept, what to reject.
It overcomes all obstacles,
Reaches invisible heights,
And has no limits.

Firmly planted and deeply rooted in the Tao,
It shows the way to a deep life with eternal vision.

Don’t let the success of a moment distract you from the steps toward a happy completion. Most often, a fortuitous beginning degenerates into a tragic ending; ventures begin with high-flying exuberance but end in disillusionment and failure. Or they begin with great difficulty and suffering but end with a contented accomplishment. History judges few worthy of an encore because most let temporary successes corrupt them away from their focus on the goals of integrity. Care less about how you look and how people regarded you during the process, more about if and how you can cross the finish line.

The less a leader does and says,
The happier the people.
The more a leader struts and controls,
The more discontent.

Misery lurks under good fortune,
Happiness hides under misery.
Since nothing is certain,
Who knows what the future holds?

Happiness and misery alternate like the seasons:
Honesty becomes deception,
The fortunate becomes unfortunate,
The ominous becomes auspicious
And our bewilderment goes on and on.

And so the wise become:
An edge that doesn’t cut,
A point that doesn’t pierce,
A line that doesn’t extend,
A light that doesn’t shine.

Less but more frequent goes much further than dumping everything at once onto a situation. Capacities for understanding differ and when we give someone too much too soon, eyes glaze over and—instead of being impressed—people can become confused and even resentful. Momentum means everything and it requires regular refueling. Too much on display today means not enough for tomorrow. Instead, pace yourself, never do more than enough, waste not knowledge or resource, and always keep something new in reserve.

Use conventional wisdom to rule a country,
Use deception to win a war
But only non-action, not meddling, letting go, doing nothing …
Will win your world.

See how this is true by watching how:
The more laws and prohibitions,
The poorer the people;
The more experts,
The more confusion;
The more weapons,
The more trouble;
The more clever the schemes,
The more people lose;
The louder the call for law and order,
The more thieves and con artists.

For these reasons wise leaders
Don’t meddle and the people transform themselves;
Don’t preach and the people naturally improve themselves;
Don’t create new economic schemes and the people prosper on their own;
Don’t chase ambitious goals and the people return to a good and simple life.

Though many may secretly believe in and search for various kinds of "free lunch," in the real world, success only arises from thoughtful preparation, careful attention, and diligent, hard work. Successful projects finish on time if done well. Don't sacrifice quality for an early completion.

Those who know don’t tell,
Those who tell don’t know.

By watching what you say,
By not having rough edges to catch,
By keeping it simple and unconfused,
Become one with the dust of the way
And realize the deep sameness of One Taste.

Then you will stop being controlled
By love and rejection,
By profit and loss,
By praise and humiliation,
By fame and fortune,
By pleasure and power
And you will stabilize the highest realization.

Clear insight arising from awareness avoids danger and accomplishes even the most difficult of tasks. This kind of confidence transcends reason, quickly finds solutions and the most appropriate response to even complicated and confusing dilemmas. Too much thought however can dissipate intuition and lead to deeds based on theory instead of the immediate experience. Reflection that uses but doesn't depend on thinking takes advantage of momentary uniqueness, acts at the best time, and often succeeds without effort.

Those steeped in goodness
Are like a newborn baby,
The eternal beginning, the life-bringing source:

Insects don’t sting,
Wild animals don’t attack.
They have weak muscles and soft bones
But a strong and firm grip.
They don’t know anything about sex
But their sexual organs still swell.
Full of true essence in balanced harmony,
They can cry all day without getting hoarse.
With perfectly balanced breath,
They live at endless ease with everything.

Knowing this harmony,
They understand the eternal.
Understanding the eternal,
They become wise.

The foolish though rush about,
Straining and trying to control
Exhausting their vital breath
Leading to rigidity and decay.