Notes
Concerning This Version This is a rendition, not a translation. I do not know any Chinese. I could approach the text at all only because Paul Carus, in his 1898 translation of the Tao Te Ching, printed the Chinese text with each character followed by a transliteration and a translation. My gratitude to him is unending. To have the text thus made accessible was not only to have a Rosetta Stone for the book itself, but also to have a touchstone for comparing other English translations one with another. If I could focus on which word the translators were interpreting, I could begin to understand why they made the choice they did. I could compare various interpretations and see why they varied so tremendously; could see how much explanation, sometimes how much bias, was included in the translation; could discover for myself that several English meanings might lead me back to the same Chinese word. And, finally, for all my ignorance of the languag... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Book 2, Chapter 81 : Telling it True
True words aren’t charming, charming words aren’t true. Good people aren’t contentious, contentious people aren’t good. People who know aren’t learned, learned people don’t know. Wise souls don’t hoard; the more they do for others the more they have, the more they give the richer they are. The Way of heaven profits without destroying. Doing without outdoing is the Way of the wise. The next little country might be so close the people could hear cocks crowing and dogs barking there, but they’d get old and die without ever having been there. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Book 2, Chapter 80 : Freedom
Let there be a little country without many people. Let them have tools that do the work of ten or a hundred, and never use them. Let them be mindful of death and disinclined to long journeys. They’d have ships and carriages, but no place to go. They’d have armor and weapons, but no parades. Instead of writing, they might go back to using knotted cords. They’d enjoy eating, take pleasure in clothes, be happy with their houses, devoted to their customs. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Book 2, Chapter 79 : Keeping the Contract
After a great enmity is settled some enmity always remains. How to make peace? Wise souls keep their part of the contract and don’t make demands on others. People whose power is real fulfill their obligations; people whose power is hollow insist on their claims. The Way of heaven plays no favorites. It stays with the good. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Book 2, Chapter 78 : Paradoxes
Nothing in the world is as soft, as weak, as water; nothing else can wear away the hard, the strong, and remain unaltered. Soft overcomes hard, weak overcomes strong. Everybody knows it, nobody uses the knowledge. So the wise say: By bearing common defilements you become a sacrificer at the altar of earth; by bearing common evils you become a lord of the world. Right words sound wrong. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Turning Back
Knowing man and staying woman, be the riverbed of the world. Being the world’s riverbed of eternal unfailing power is to go back again to be newborn. Knowing light and staying dark, be a pattern to the world. Being the world’s pattern of eternal unerring power is to go back again to boundlessness. Knowing glory and staying modest, be the valley of the world. Being the world’s valley of eternal inexhaustible power is to go back again to the natural. Natural wood is cut up and made into useful things. Wise souls are used to make into leaders. Just so, a great carving is done without cutting. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

People of Power
Once upon a time people who knew the Way were subtle, spiritual, mysterious, penetrating, unfathomable. Since they’re inexplicable I can only say what they seemed like: Cautious, oh yes, as if wading through a winter river. Alert, as if afraid of the neighbors. Polite and quiet, like houseguests. Elusive, like melting ice. Blank, like uncut wood. Empty, like valleys. Mysterious, oh yes, they were like troubled water. Who can by stillness, little by little make what is troubled grow clear? Who can by movement, little by little make what is still grow quick? To follow the Way is not to need fulfillment. Unfulfilled, one may live on needing no renewal. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Shameless
To be in favor or disgrace is to live in fear. To take the body seriously is to admit one can suffer. What does that mean, to be in favor or disgrace is to live in fear? Favor debases: we fear to lose it, fear to win it. So to be in favor or disgrace is to live in fear. What does that mean, to take the body seriously is to admit one can suffer? I suffer because I’m a body; if I weren’t a body, how could I suffer? So people who set their bodily good before the public good could be entrusted with the commonwealth, and people who treated the body politic as gently as their own body would be worthy to govern the commonwealth. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Dim Brightness
Heaven will last, earth will endure. How can they last so long? They don’t exist for themselves and so can go on and on. So wise souls leaving self behind move forward, and setting self aside stay centered. Why let the self go? To keep what the soul needs. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

The Empty Heart
The greatest power is the gift of following the Way alone. How the Way does things is hard to grasp, elusive. Elusive, yes, hard to grasp, yet there are thoughts in it. Hard to grasp, yes, elusive, yet there are things in it. Hard to make out, yes, and obscure, yet there is spirit in it, veritable spirit. There is certainty in it. From long, long ago till now it has kept its name. So it saw the beginning of everything. How do I know anything about the beginning? By this. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)