Chapter 4

The Tao is like the emptiness of a vessel; when we use it, we must guard against trying to fill it. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the honored ancestor of all things!

We should dull our sharp edges and untangle our knots; we should soften our brightness and join with the dust of others. How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would always remain so!

I do not know whose child it is. It seems to have existed before God.