Man, when he enters life,
is soft and weak.
When he dies
he is hard and strong.
Plants, when they enter life,
are soft and tender.
When they die
they are dry and stiff.
Therefore: the hard and the strong
are companions of death;
the soft and the weak
are companions of life.
Therefore: when weapons are strong they are not victorious
When trees are strong they are cut down.
The strong, the great, is below.
The soft, the weak, is above.
(Laozi assumes that weakness will prevail over strength precisely because of its expansiveness, flexibility and endurance. Trength eventually exhausts itself while the energy of weakness is boundless.)
/Katrin Froese, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Daoist Thought/
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