![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh849W-qZmZgBZ43usIHKGrxqJibVgg4uwpx2UVvdyoYuvKdPEssI1O5b_nlAeXsk2JMhfSgbgadMWPVOXHCMfh-cEpf7QATLJonaw10RrHhZQHCzQE8BUOWa5N-4Cfz4iuy_nvsq5B5hI/s400/5981761296_85bdfccb1f_z.jpg)
Thirty spokes
meet in the hub.
Where the wheel isn't
is where it's useful.
Hollowed out,
clay makes a pot.
Where the pot's not
is where it's useful.
Cut doors and windows
to make a room.
Where the room isn't,
there's room for you.
So the profit in what is
is in the use of what isn't.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCQNOLL70Hdap5mXazTQLpo3koh6Ch2cIWRWU3LQhdhoCyRhaphwB4uHNSTdbba4hCBWsEyukXs5OXRFZUiDvsTceS278kggY_sYTGM-nUZK8p5eKj9_DfnMoExAXPk0JE8-7lxokfiRs/s1600/Lao-Tzu.jpg)
Translator's note: "One of the things I love about Lao Tzu is he is so funny. He's explaining a profound and difficult truth here, one of those counter-intuitive truths that, when the mind can accept them, suddenly double the size of the universe. He goes about it with this deadpan simplicity, talking about pots."
Art credit: "Empty vessel," photograph taken on July 24, 2011, in Hyderabad, Telengana, India, by swarat_ghosh.
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