After reading this marvelous poem, “Twenty-five” by Tao Te Ching, I thought about its meaning for a very long time. In my opinion “Twenty-five” is about an idea, which was formed before anything else in the world. I believe, when the author used this line, “born before Heaven and Earth”, he wanted readers to understand, or think at least, that idea is a former of our civilization. Furthermore, author says, “standing alone and unchanging…”, I believe that by this line, Tao Te Ching tried to show to the readers that idea is the independent and primary source of our thoughts and decisions. Ideas can be converted into reality, they can disappear, they can pop up in mind. Ideas are the ruler. Ideas force humans to think, to progress and to keep our civilization alive. In author’s opinion, ideas follow what is natural, men follow Earth, and “Earth follows heaven”; and this thought forces me to understand that without someone’s idea in the very beginning there won’t be what we have now. To sum up, this poem is a beautiful piece of literature which made me think about very important and beautiful things.