Words and knowing

1. 道可道非常道，

   The way that can be followed is not the eternal Way.

2. 名可名非常名。

   The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

Listen Chapter 1, line 1

1. 是以圣人处无为之事，

   Thus the sage puts himself in a position of non-active productive state,

2. 行不言之教，万物作焉而不辞，

   carries out unspoken guidance. The myriad things conform to the same law, without a word.

Listen Chapter 2, line 6

1. 常使民无知无欲，使夫智者不敢为也，

   Always keep the people without knowledge and without desire, and make the clever ones not dare to act.

Listen Chapter 3, line 6

1. 多言数穷，不如守中。

   Describing its extremes leads to exhaustion, and is inferior to holding the center (not naming).

Listen Chapter 5, line 5

1. 复命曰常，知常曰明，

   Returning to life is called constant. Knowing this constant is called brilliance.

2. 不知常，妄作，凶。

   Not knowing the constant, acting arbitrarily, is harmful.

Listen Chapter 16, line 5

1. 悠兮其贵言。

   Unhurried, he is sparing with his words.

Listen Chapter 17, line 6

1. 智慧出，有大伪；

   When intelligence is manifest, arises great deception.

Listen Chapter 18, line 2

1. 绝圣弃智，民利百倍；

   Reject the divine and abandon wisdom, the people will benefit a hundredfold.

Listen Chapter 19, line 1

1. 此三者，以为文不足，

   These above three, are insufficiently described by mere words,

Listen Chapter 19, line 4

1. 绝学无忧。

   Get rid of "learning" and there will be no anxiety.

Listen Chapter 20, line 1

1. 希言自然。

   To speak little is natural.

Listen Chapter 23, line 1

1. 吾不知其名，字之曰道，

   I don't know its name. As a word, I label it the "Way".

2. 强为之名曰大。

   Imposing on it a name, I call it "great."

Listen Chapter 25, line 4

1. 善言无瑕谪，

   a good speaker lacks flaws and rebuke,

Listen Chapter 27, line 2

1. 知人者智，自知者明。

   Knowing others is wisdom; knowing yourself is clarity.

Listen Chapter 33, line 1

1. 道之出口，

   But when the Way is spoken,

2. 淡乎其无味。

   it is bland and has no flavor.

Listen Chapter 35, line 4

1. 前识者，道之华而愚之始。

   Foreknowledge is the flower of the Way and the beginning of folly.

Listen Chapter 38, line 12

1. 上士闻道，

   When the superior scholar hears of the Way,

2. 勤而行之；

   he practices it diligently;

3. 中士闻道，

   when the average scholar hears of the Way,

4. 若存若亡；

   he half keeps it, half loses it;

5. 下士闻道，大笑之。

   when the lesser scholar hears of the Way, he laughs out loud at it.

6. 不笑不足以为道。

   If he did not laugh, it would not be the Way.

Listen Chapter 41, line 1

1. 不言之教，无为之益，

   Teaching without words, the benefit of non-action:

2. 天下希及之。

   few in the world attain them.

Listen Chapter 43, line 4

1. 大辩若讷。

   great eloquence seems to stammer.

Listen Chapter 45, line 5

1. 不出户，知天下；

   Without going out of the door, one knows the world;

2. 不窥牖，见天道。

   without looking out of the window, one sees the Way of heaven.

3. 其出弥远，其知弥少。

   The farther one goes, the less one knows.

4. 是以圣人不行而知，

   So the sage knows without going,

5. 不见而名，

   names without seeing,

6. 不为而成。

   and achieves without acting.

Listen Chapter 47, line 1

1. 为学日益，为道日损。

   Pursuing learning, one gains every day; pursuing the Way, one loses every day.

Listen Chapter 48, line 1

1. 知者不言，言者不知。

   Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.

Listen Chapter 56, line 1

1. 美言可以市，尊行可以加人。

   Fine words can be sold; noble deeds can raise a person up.

Listen Chapter 62, line 3

1. 夫轻诺必寡信，

   Light promises always earn little trust;

Listen Chapter 63, line 9

1. 学不学，复众人之所过。

   he learns not to learn, and brings people back from where they went too far.

Listen Chapter 64, line 17

1. 古之善为道者，非以明民，

   Those of old who were good at the Way did not use it to make the people clever,

2. 将以愚之。

   but to keep them simple.

3. 民之难治，以其智多。

   People are hard to govern because they are too clever.

4. 故以智治国，国之贼，

   So to govern a state with cleverness is to rob the state;

5. 不以智治国，国之福。

   not to govern a state with cleverness is a blessing for the state.

Listen Chapter 65, line 1

1. 是以欲上民，必以言下之。

   So to be above the people, one must speak as one below them;

Listen Chapter 66, line 4

1. 吾言甚易知，甚易行。

   My words are very easy to understand and very easy to practice.

2. 天下莫能知，莫能行。

   Yet no one in the world can understand them, no one can practice them.

3. 言有宗，事有君。

   Words have an ancestor; deeds have a master.

4. 夫唯无知，是以不我知。

   It is because people do not understand this that they do not understand me.

5. 知我者希，则我者贵。

   Those who understand me are few; those who follow me are rare and precious.

6. 是以圣人被褐怀玉。

   So the sage wears coarse cloth but carries jade inside.

Listen Chapter 70, line 1

1. 知不知上，

   To know that you do not know is best;

2. 不知知病。

   not to know, yet think you know, is a sickness.

3. 夫唯病病，是以不病。

   Only by recognizing the sickness as sickness are you free of it.

4. 圣人不病，以其病病，

   The sage is not sick, because he recognizes the sickness as sickness;

5. 是以不病。

   that is why he is not sick.

Listen Chapter 71, line 1

1. 是以圣人自知不自见，

   So the sage knows himself but does not show himself,

Listen Chapter 72, line 4

1. 不言而善应，不召而自来，

   does not speak, yet is good at answering; is not summoned, yet comes of itself;

Listen Chapter 73, line 7

1. 正言若反。

   True words seem contrary.

Listen Chapter 78, line 10

1. 信言不美，美言不信。

   True words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not true.

2. 善者不辩，

   The good do not argue;

3. 辩者不善。

   those who argue are not good.

4. 知者不博，

   Those who know are not learned in everything;

5. 博者不知。

   those learned in everything do not know.

Listen Chapter 81, line 1