"The tao that can be told / is not the eternal Tao. / The name that can be named / is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real. / Naming is the origin of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery. / Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations / arise from the same source. / This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness. / The gateway to all understanding." Chapter 1.

"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 inside / that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house, / but it is the inner space / that makes it livable.
We work with being, / but non-being is what we use." Chapter 11.

"Other people are bright; / I alone am dark. / Other people are sharp...