Failure is an opportunity

When you are content to be simply yourself
and do not compare or compete,
then you may earn respect.

Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after possessions
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval
and you will be their prisoner.

Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
doing with no expectations,
leading and not controlling,
these are supreme virtues.

We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness
that holds whatever is poured.

We hammer wood for our home,
but it is only space
in which we live.

We work with being,
but use non-being.
It is well to observe the world,
but trust your inner vision

A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arriving.

Leaders act rather than talk.
When their work is done,
the people say, "Amazing:
we did it all by ourselves!"

Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is power.

When there is no desire,
all things are at peace.

The gentlest thing
overcomes the hardest.
That without substance
enters where there is no space.

In the pursuit of knowledge,
every day something is added.
In the practice of wisdom,
every day something is dropped.

The mark of a moderate man
is freedom from his own ideas.

A Teacher teaches
by emptying students' minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
A teacher helps students lose everything they know,
everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know

You cannot know it,
but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.

Understand that the universe
is forever out of control,
and that trying to dominate events
goes against the river's current.
If you believe in yourself,
will you need the belief of others?
If you are content with yourself,
will you need the approval of others?
If you accept yourself,
who will not accept you?