Eighty-one terse verses on the Tao teach effortless action, humility, and rule through non-interference rather than force.
Books that mention Tao Te Ching (8)
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell: “There is an often-quoted verse in Sanskrit, which appears in the Chinese Tao-te Ching as well: "He who thinks he knows, doesn't know."”
Cosmos by Alexander von Humboldt: “Twelve lines from Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, translated by D. C. Lau, quoted as a chapter epigraph.”
The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura: “Laotse himself spoke of it thus: "There is a thing which is all-containing, which was born before the existence of Heaven and Earth. How silent! How solitary! It stands alone and changes not.”
The Japanese Spirit by Yoshisaburo Okakura: “…Laoism, through the wonderful Tao-teh-king, a small book by Lao-tze himself, but especially through Chwang-tze, a work in ten books by his famous follower Chwang-chow, has exercised considerable influence on our thought for twelve centuries, a word about it may not be out of place before we go on to consider the doctrine of Shakya-muni.”
I Am a Cat by Natsume Sōseki: “The master's only reason for revering this prose is that nobody understands it at all, just as Taoists revere the Tao Te Ching, Confucians the I Ching, and Zen followers the Record of Linji. [auto-translated]”
The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi by Fukuzawa Yukichi: “I of course studied the Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents, and even odd, interesting works such as the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi, hearing the teacher's lectures and studying them myself. [auto-translated]”
Shibue Chūsai by Mori Ōgai: “The scholar Meian was fond of the Tao Te Ching in his later years, and so Chūsai too came to share his taste. [auto-translated]”