tao te ching

Fill your bowl to the brim

and it will spill

Keep sharpening your knife

and it will blunt

Chase after money and security

and your heart will never unclench

Care about people's approval

and you will be their prisoner

Do your work, then step back.

The only path to serenity

I have just three things to teach:

Simplicity

Patience

Compassion

These three are your greatest treasures

Simple in actions and thoughts,

you return to the source of being

Patient with both friends and enemies,

you accord with the way things are

Compassionate toward yourself,

you reconcile all beings in the world

Act without doing;

work without effort

Think of the small as large

and the few as many

Confront the difficult

while it is still easy

Accomplish the great task

by a series of small acts

Knowing others is intelligence;

knowing yourself is true wisdom

Mastering others is strength;

mastering yourself is true power

If you look to others for fulfillment,

you will never truly be fulfilled

If your happiness depends on money,

you will never be happy with yourself

Be content with what you have;

rejoice in the way things are

When you realize there is nothing lacking,

the whole world belongs to you