“He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough”: did Laozi say it?
Genuine: chapter 46
Yes: “He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough” renders the last line of chapter 46 of the Dao De Jing, 知足之足，常足矣, the contentment that lasts.
He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.
What the Dao De Jing says
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祸莫大于不知足；
No disaster is greater than not knowing what is enough;
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咎莫大于欲得。
no fault is greater than wanting to gain.
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故知足之足，常足矣。
So the contentment of knowing what is enough is lasting contentment.
What the Chinese says
The line plays on one character, 足, “enough”, three times. 知足之足: “the enough of knowing enough”. 常足矣: “is constant enough”. Our translation: “So the contentment of knowing what is enough is lasting contentment.” James Legge (1891): “Therefore the sufficiency of contentment is an enduring and unchanging sufficiency.” The English saying keeps the play on the word, which is why it stays in the memory.
How translations differ
The circulating sentence closes chapter 46 in Gia-fu Feng and Jane English's version, where it is introduced by “Therefore”. The Chinese 故 is “so, therefore” too: the line is a conclusion. 知足 is an ordinary word in Chinese today, “to be content”; the book uses it in chapters 33 and 44 too.
The line in its chapter
The chapter opens with horses: in a world that has the Way, galloping horses are sent back to manure the fields; in a world that has lost it, warhorses are bred on the borders. Then the cause: “No disaster is greater than not knowing what is enough; no fault is greater than wanting to gain.” The contentment of the last line is the cure for both, for a ruler as much as for one person.