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The best of all teachers is the one who helps people so that eventually they don't need him.
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A government can be compared to our lungs. Our lungs are best when we don't realize they are helping us breathe. It is when we are constantly aware of our lungs that we know they have come down with an illness.
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To know that you do not know is the best. To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.
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If you scramble about in search of inner peace, you will lose your inner peace.
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A great country is like the lower outlet of a river. It is the world's meeting ground, the world's female.
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All men desire to free themselves solely from death; they do not know how to free themselves from life.
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A vessel is formed from a lump of clay with care, however, it is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.
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Can you dissolve your ego? Can you abandon the idea of self and other? Can you relinquish the notions of male and female, short and long, life and death? Can you let go of all these dualities and embrace the Tao without skepticism or panic? If so, you can reach the heart of the Integral Oneness.
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The sage does not hoard. The more he helps others, the more he benefits himself, Having bestowed all he has on others, he has yet more; having given all he has to others, he is richer still.
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Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
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What is a good man but a bad man's teacher? What is a bad man but a good man's job? If you do not remember this, You will get lost, No matter how intelligent you are. It is the great secret.
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Seek not happiness too greedily and be not fearful of happiness.
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Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death. The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.
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He who defends with love will be secure; Heaven will save him, and protect him with love.
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Nothing and no one in the world is valuable or worthless.
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Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment; Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self needs strength.
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He who gains a victory over other men is strong; but he who gains a victory over himself is all powerful.
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The noble must make humility his root.
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There is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things.
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The farther you go, the less you know.
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If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never be truly fulfilled.
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The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of all things.
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With virtue and quietness one may conquer the world.
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When the world is ruled according to the Way, the ghosts lose their power. The ghosts do not really lose their power, but it is not used to harm people.