Tao

exerpts from the Tao
30
He who knows how to guide a ruler in the path of Tao does not try to override the world with force of arms.
It is in the nature of a military weapon to turn against it's wielder.
Wherever armies are stationed thorny bushes grow.
After a great war, bad years inevitably follow.
What you want is to protect efficiently your own state, but not to aim at self-aggrandisement.
After you have attained your purpose you must not parade your success, you must not boast of your ability, you must not feel proud, you must rather regret that you had not been able to prevent the war.
You must never think of conquering others by force.
For to be overdeveloped is to hasten decay, and this is against the Tao, and what is against the Tao will soon cease to be.

75
Why are the people starving?
Because, those above them are taxing them to heavily.
That is why they are starving.
Why are the people hard to manage?
Because those above them are fussy and have private ends to serve.
That is why they are hard to manage.
Why do the people make light of death?
Because those above them make too much of life.
That is why they make light of death.
The people have simply nothing to live upon!
They know better than to value such life!

76
When a man is living, he is soft and supple.
When he is dead he becomes hard and rigid.
When a plant is living it is soft and tender.
When it is dead, it becomes withered and dry.
Hence, the hard and rigid belongs to the company of the dead.
The soft and supple belongs to the company of the living.
Therefore, a mighty army tends to fall by it's own weight,
just as dry wood is ready for the axe.
The mighty and great will be laid low.
The humble and weak will be exalted.

78
Nothing in the world is softer and weaker than water.
But, for attacking the hard and strong, there is nothing like it!
For nothing can take it's place.
That the weak overcomes the strong,
and the soft overcomes the hard,
This is something known by all, but practiced by none.
Therefore, the sage says:
To recieve the dirt of a country is to be the lord of its soil shrines.
To bear the calamities of a country is to be the prince of the world.
Indeed, Truth sounds like it's opposite!

11
Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub.
It is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges.
We make a vessle from a lump of clay.
It is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.

We make doors and windows for a room.
But it is these empty spaces that make the room livable.
Thus, while the tangible has advantages...
It is the intangable that makes it useful.