``The eighty-one sayings in this volume shine like gems-cut clear and beautiful in every facet .
Some hold that Lao Tzu was not one man.
Confucius, who met him only once, likened him to a dragon, the one creature in all creation whose ways he would never understand.
Legend tells us that he was immaculately conceived by a shooting star.
This translation will stand as the perfect rendering of a classic work.``--John Haynes Holmes Lao Tzu was one of the greatest mystics of all time. . . . ``The eighty-one sayings in this volume shine like gems-cut clear and beautiful in every facet