You can always add a word to a conversation, but you can never take one away. Those who speak too quickly tend to also quickly fail. So be careful speaking; talk like you were testifying in court or writing your will. This can keep ammunition away from rivals and save your reputation with others. Practice with small and inconsequential conversations and you will be ready for the important and consequential ones. Reserve attracts respect.

Works of nature mature to a point of ripeness and then degrade. But recognizing and harvesting at this point requires both rare insight and uncommon skill. A similar kind of ripening occurs in the realm of understanding and wisdom; but in the world of art, such points of perfection beyond potential improvement are rare or non-existent.

Without leaving home
You can understand all that goes on in the world.
Without looking through a window,
You can see the universal patterns.
The farther you go,
The less you know.
The wise therefore
Don’t go but know,
Don’t look but see,
Don’t try but succeed.
The best way to do is to be.

Without an empty hub,
Wheels are useless.
Without an inside emptiness,
Pots and bowls are useless.
Without an empty space for doors and windows,
Houses are useless.
Without an empty mind,
People are useless.

With a rival or competitor, avoid predictability. It's easy to shoot a bird flying in a straight line, not so easy if they weave back and forth. Don't conform to predictable patterns always doing the same procedures in the same ways at the same times. And likewise, don't always act on either the first or the second impulse, the first or the second thought. Poker players don't play with their cards face up. Even more so, with an enemy watching, frequently change the way you do 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.

While the extremes of "honor" require an attitude of never surrendering, skillful strategies respect and frequently use subtleties of strategic withdrawal. Gallant retreats often surpass courageous attacks. The higher fortune heaps for us success, good fortune, and luck; the more likely that the luck will end, the success become failure. And so, don't expect luck to last long, quit while still winning, store and hide your resources when you have enough—even when not enough. Fortune often balances the intensity of her favors with the shortness of their time span.

While fools often fail by rushing in too quickly, the wise often fail from too much deliberation. Haste without forethought, knowledge of the dangers, and preparation easily leads to failure. Too much hesitation and caution, however, can lead to procrastination and delay that misses opportunities and good fortune. Seizing quickly-passing opportunities often requires prompt judgment. Leaving nothing for tomorrow, mix diligence with intelligence and seize the day.

Which means more to you –
Health or wealth?
What matters more –
Fame or your true name?
Which gives more pain –
Loss or gain?

The more we love something,
The more it will cost.
The bigger the treasure,
The more will be lost.
Contentment keeps disgrace away,
Knowing when to stop keeps danger at bay.

When you start something new, be extremely careful about people's anticipation and their imagination. They need to know enough to become curious and inspired but not enough to arouse unrealistic expectations. We can never accurately imagine the future's reality. No matter how beneficial the project or how much integrity the person, they will always fall short of the public's desire-inspired imagination. Hope distorts the truth and transfigures reality, creates a pitfall for the famous, and conjures detractors and enemies out of colleagues and customers. The highest success arrives when the results climb higher than the anticipation, the taste proves better than the appearance, when the reward goes further than the goal. With evil people and activities, however, the opposite applies. Expectations of great calamity manifest as easily tolerable and the negative event brings relief instead of frustration.

When wisdom rules,
Horses manure fields instead of roads.
When the world lacks wisdom,
War horses are raised on the commons.

The greatest evil: always wanting more.
The biggest mistake: always chasing desires.
The cruelest curse: always getting what we want.

Only when we know what is enough
Will we always have enough.
To know enough’s enough
Is enough to know.

When we talk about ourselves, we normally either praise or criticize. The former communicates vanity and pride; the latter weak-minded lack of confidence. Both discredit reputations, sabotage projects, and make the people listening uncomfortable. Much better to never talk about ourselves—in personal conversations; and, even more importantly, if in a group or public setting. For similar reasons, also best to not talk about someone part of the group and listening.

When we suppress our insight into the best response to a given situation because of a reluctance to create conflict, we compromise our integrity and only delay and amplify the difficult moments. For bees to make honey, they need to rely on their stingers for protection. Moral courage goes far beyond just physical courage while moral cowardice degrades much more than physical weakness. Because of this reluctance to say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done, many otherwise intelligent and talented people live empty lives of meaningless boredom cocooned in their cowardice.

When we don’t fear the fearful,
Confusion and great suffering arise.
Therefore fear a constricted life,
Fear wasting your time with a meaningless career.
If we don’t accept superficial values,
We won’t act in superficial ways.

And so the wise know themselves
But don’t show themselves,
Take care of and appreciate
But don’t puff up and exaggerate.
They let go of that
And choose this.

When troubles arise, rely more and more on yourself. The bigger the problem, the more energy, confidence, and perseverance we need to bring forward. When we surrender to fate, it only makes it more intolerable. By not helping ourselves we only double the weight of our concerns and prevent us from seeing how best to overcome them. Strengthening our weaknesses and confidently going forward dissolves worries and entices success out of failure. The wise know themselves, understand the challenge, increase their knowledge and skills, and therefore conquer all—even the unlucky stars.

When the wise hear of the Tao,
They immediately follow it.
When the conventional hear,
They wonder if it’s true.
When the foolish hear,
They laugh out loud.
If there were no laughter,
It wouldn’t be the Tao.
Therefore these saying arose:

The brightest path seems dark,
Advancing seems like retreating,
The smoothest way seems rough,
The easy way seems hard,
Perfect whiteness looks dirty,
The strongest power seems weak,
The truest truth uncertain,
The pure and simple looks chaotic,
The highest virtue is empty like a valley,

The greatest square has no corners,
The greatest tool has no uses,
The greatest music has no sound,
The greatest image has no form.

The Tao is hidden and nameless
Yet it alone nourishes, sustains
And brings everything to fulfillment

When the rich spend taxes on making themselves richer,
The people starve.
Thieves and robbers arise from cold and hunger.
When the people don’t have enough,
Why should the rich have too much?

When the rich oppress,
The people rebel.
When the government is too intrusive,
The people are hard to govern.
The more laws they make,
The more criminals appear.

When the powerful make too much of life,
The people make light of death.
Those not seduced by fortune and fame
Are worth so much more than these wealth-seekers.
Only a leader not focused on personal gain
Can wisely govern.

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.