It’s easy to keep hold of what hasn’t stirred, easy to plan what hasn’t occurred. It’s easy to shatter delicate things, easy to scatter little things. Do things before they happen. Get them straight before they get mixed up.

The tree you can’t reach your arms around grew from a tiny seedling. The nine-story tower rises from a heap of clay. The ten-thousand-mile journey begins beneath your foot.

Do, and do wrong; Hold on, and lose. Not doing, the wise soul doesn’t do it wrong, and not holding on, doesn’t lose it. (In all their undertakings, it’s just as they’re almost finished that people go wrong. Mind the end as the beginning, then it won’t go wrong.)

That’s why the wise want not to want, care nothing for hard-won treasures, learn not to be learned, turn back to what people overlooked. They go along with things as they are, but don’t presume to act.