THE TAO TEH KING, OR THE TAO AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS
☯ The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao ☯
Translated by James Legge
Book 2
Chapter 81
(1) Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those who
are skilled (in the Tao) do not dispute (about it); the disputatious
are not skilled in it. Those who know (the Tao) are not extensively
learned; the extensively learned do not know it.
(2) The sage does not accumulate (for himself). The more that he expends
for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he
gives to others, the more does he have himself.
(3) With all the sharpness of the Way of Heaven, it injures not; with
all the doing in the way of the sage he does not strive.