Dao De Jing

Chapter 8: Water

The highest excellence is like that of water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving to the contrary, the low place which all men dislike. Hence its way is near to that of the Tao.

The excellence of a residence is in the suitability of the place; that of the mind is in abysmal stillness; that of associations is in their being with the virtuous; that of government is in its securing good order; that of the conduct of affairs is in its ability; and that of the initiation of any movement is in its timeliness.

And when one with the highest excellence does not wrangle about his low position, no one finds fault with him.

Chapter 11: Emptiness

The thirty spokes unite in the one nave; but it is on the empty space for the axle, that the use of the wheel depends. Clay is fashioned into vessels; but it is on their empty hollowness, that their use depends. The door and windows are cut out from the walls to form an apartment; but it is on the empty space within, that its use depends.

Therefore, what has a positive existence serves for profitable adaptation, and what has not that for actual usefulness.

Chapters 76 and 78: Softness Overcomes

Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. So it is with all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered.

Thus it is that firmness and strength are the concomitants of death; softness and weakness, the concomitants of life.

Hence he who relies on the strength of his forces does not conquer; and a tree which is strong will fill the outstretched arms, and thereby invites the feller. Therefore the place of what is firm and strong is below, and that of what is soft and weak is above.

There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it; for there is nothing so effectual for which it can be changed.

Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong, but no one is able to carry it out in practice.