Favorite Quotes From the Tao Te Ching
 

The Tao is reportedly the world's third-most translated book so I thought it would be a good idea for all to share their favorite quotes from the Tao Te Ching. The quote below is quite well known, and seems to be a good start.

"Those who know, don't talk.
Those who talk, don't know".

Difficult to choose. Today I choose:
Here are four translations side by side:
https://ttc.tasuki.org/display:Year:...2004/section:1

from ch 3

These entirely result in people
Who are absent of knowing and absent of desire
In the end they also result in the wise not venturing to act.

When acting without acting
An absence of being without governing follows.

The sage does not expect that others
use his criteria as their own.

From Verse 18



When intellectualism arises,
hypocrisy is close behind…






When the country falls into chaos,
politicians talk about ‘patriotism’.

Nice quotes. "Intellectualism" was one of my own major personal obstacles.

Moving from knowing to not knowing .......
 

"Moving from knowing to not knowing ---
........this is good.

Moving from not knowing to knowing ---
.........this is sickness."

(71 - Brian Browne Walker translation)

This quote from the Tao is awesome and focuses on one of my favorite aspects of realization ---- "absent of knowing and absent of desire".

:smile:

my favorite verse.

Here is how I translate the whole thing:

in considering knowing vs the lack of knowing
it is better, the lack of knowing
knowing is like a disease

In the end only when the disease is sick
is a realistic way to come to lack the disease.

Sages lack the disease
It happened the disease was sick.

Appropriately, lack of the disease happened.

the bible said something similar with god's injunction not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In my mind the two statements complement each other...

yeah the acting without acting is a big one for me too, because, it is terrible to be after absence of knowing/desire without having the presence of some trying to do that lol