道德經
Each verse is a door. Enter anywhere. The Tao will meet you where you are.
The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao.
Mystery Read Verse → Verse 2 ▶When the world speaks of beauty as being beautiful, ugliness is at once defined. When goodness is…
Opposites Read Verse → Verse 3Avoiding distinctions of merit among the people prevents jealousy. Not setting a value on rare th…
Leadership Read Verse → Verse 4 ▶The Tao appears to be emptiness but it is never exhausted. Oh, it is profound! It appears to have…
Emptiness Read Verse → Verse 5Nature is non-benevolent. It regards all things as straw dogs.
Impartiality Read Verse → Verse 6The "Spirit of the Valley" never dies,
Receptivity Read Verse → Verse 7Heaven endures and earth is lasting. And why can heaven and earth endure and be lasting? Because …
Selflessness Read Verse → Verse 8The greatest virtue is like water; it is good to all things. It attains the most inaccessible pla…
Water Read Verse → Verse 9It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full.
Sufficiency Read Verse → Verse 10When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace, they can be kept from sep…
Wholeness Read Verse → Verse 11The thirty spokes of a carriage wheel uniting at the nave are made useful by the hole in the cent…
Usefulness Read Verse → Verse 12The five colors the human eye will blind.
Restraint Read Verse → Verse 13Equally fear favor and disgrace.
Ego Read Verse → Verse 14We look at Tao and do not see it; its name is Colorless. We listen to Tao and do not hear it; its…
Formlessness Read Verse → Verse 15Those of yore who have succeeded in becoming masters are subtile, spiritual, profound, and penetr…
Patience Read Verse → Verse 16Having emptied yourself of everything, remain where you are.
Stillness Read Verse → Verse 17When great men rule, subjects know little of their existence. Rulers who are less great win the a…
Leadership Read Verse → Verse 18The great Tao faded and there was benevolence and righteousness. Worldly wisdom and shrewdness ap…
Naturalness Read Verse → Verse 19Abandon the show of saintliness and relinquish excessive prudence, then people will benefit a hun…
Simplicity Read Verse → Verse 20Abandon learnedness, and you have no vexation. The "yes" compared with the "yea," how little do t…
Solitude Read Verse → Verse 21The greatest virtue is in simply following Tao, the intangible, inscrutable.
Essence Read Verse → Verse 22At that time the deficient will be made perfect; the distorted will be straightened; the empty wi…
Yielding Read Verse → Verse 23Moderate your speech, and preserve yourself.
Quietness Read Verse → Verse 24By standing on tiptoe one cannot keep still.
Overreaching Read Verse → Verse 25There is Being that is all-inclusive and that existed before Heaven and Earth. Calm, indeed, and …
Source Read Verse → Verse 26The heavy is of the light the root, and rest is motion's master.
Steadiness Read Verse → Verse 27Good walkers leave no tracks, good speakers make no errors, good counters need no abacus, good wa…
Skill Read Verse → Verse 28He who, being a man, remains a woman, will become an universal channel.
Return Read Verse → Verse 29When one desires to take in hand the empire and make it, I see him not succeed. The empire is a d…
Non-action Read Verse → Verse 30When one uses the Tao in assisting his sovereign, he will not employ arms to coerce the state. Su…
Restraint Read Verse → Verse 31Weapons, however ornamental, are not a source of happiness, but are dreaded by all. Therefore the…
Peace Read Verse → Verse 32Tao — the Eternally Nameless.
Simplicity Read Verse → Verse 33One who knows others is clever, but one who knows himself is enlightened.
Self-knowledge Read Verse → Verse 34How all-pervading is the great Tao! It can be on the left and it can be on the right. The ten tho…
Greatness Read Verse → Verse 35The world will go to him who grasps this Great Principle; they will seek and not be injured, they…
Substance Read Verse → Verse 36That which is about to contract has surely first been expanded. That which is about to weaken has…
Reversal Read Verse → Verse 37Tao remains quiescent, and yet leaves nothing undone.
Wu Wei Read Verse → Verse 38Superior virtue is un-virtue. Therefore it has virtue. Inferior virtue never loses sight of virtu…
Authenticity Read Verse → Verse 39Certain things have, by unity, lasted from most ancient times, namely:—
Wholeness Read Verse → Verse 40Homeward is the Tao's course,
Return Read Verse → Verse 41The true student hears of the Tao; he is diligent and practices it.
Patience Read Verse → Verse 42The Tao begets unity; unity begets duality; duality begets trinity; and trinity begets the ten th…
Paradox Read Verse → Verse 43The gentlest thing in the world will override the strongest.
Softness Read Verse → Verse 44Fame or life, which is dearer? Life or wealth, which is more? Gain or loss, which is worse?
Contentment Read Verse → Verse 45The greatest attainment is as though incomplete; but its utility remains unimpaired.
Imperfection Read Verse → Verse 46When the Empire is controlled by the Tao, riding horses are employed in agriculture; when the Emp…
Contentment Read Verse → Verse 47Without going outside his door, one understands all that takes place under the sky;
Inwardness Read Verse → Verse 48The pursuit of study brings daily increase; the pursuit of Tao daily decrease; decrease upon decr…
Subtraction Read Verse → Verse 49The wise man has no fixed heart; in the hearts of the people he finds his own. The good he treats…
Compassion Read Verse → Verse 50Birth is an exit; death an entrance.
Vitality Read Verse → Verse 51Tao gives life to all creatures; teh feeds them; materiality shapes them; energy completes them.
Nurturing Read Verse → Verse 52That from which the universe sprang may be looked upon as its Mother.
Source Read Verse → Verse 53Even if one has but a little knowledge he can walk in the ways of the great Tao; it is only self-…
Substance Read Verse → Verse 54Who plants well will not have his work uprooted; who embraces well will not lose what he holds; t…
Rootedness Read Verse → Verse 55The essence of teh is comparable to the state of a young boy. Poisonous insects will not sting hi…
Innocence Read Verse → Verse 56Who knows does not speak; who speaks does not know.
Silence Read Verse → Verse 57The empire is administered with righteousness; the army is directed by craft; the people are capt…
Non-interference Read Verse → Verse 58When the government is not in evidence the people are honest and loyal.
Equanimity Read Verse → Verse 59In governing the people and in attending to heaven there is nothing like moderation.
Moderation Read Verse → Verse 60The state should be governed as we cook small fish, without much business.
Delicacy Read Verse → Verse 61A great country is lowly. Everything under heaven blends with it. It is like the female, which at…
Humility Read Verse → Verse 62Tao is the secret guardian of all things.
Refuge Read Verse → Verse 63Assert non-assertion. Practise non-practice. Taste non-taste. Make great the small. Make much the…
Ease Read Verse → Verse 64What is still is easily held. What is expected is easily provided for. What is brittle is easily …
Beginnings Read Verse → Verse 65The ancients who practised the Tao did not make use of it to render the people brilliant, but to …
Simplicity Read Verse → Verse 66That rivers and oceans can of the hundred valleys be kings is due to their excelling in lowliness…
Lowliness Read Verse → Verse 67All the world avows that while my Taoism is great, it is yet incompetent! It is its greatness whi…
Gentleness Read Verse → Verse 68He who excels as a warrior is not warlike. He who excels as a fighter is not wrathful. He who exc…
Mastery Read Verse → Verse 69A great warrior has said, "I dare not be the host, I would rather be the guest; I dare not advanc…
Reluctance Read Verse → Verse 70It is very easy to comprehend my teachings and to put them into practice. Yet there is no one in …
Plainness Read Verse → Verse 71To know one's ignorance is the best part of knowledge.
Unknowing Read Verse → Verse 72If the people do not fear the dreadful, the great dreadful will come, surely.
Foundations Read Verse → Verse 73He whose courage is expressed in daring will soon meet death. He whose courage is shown in self-r…
Inevitability Read Verse → Verse 74If the people do not fear death, how can they be frightened by death?
Humaneness Read Verse → Verse 75The people hunger because their superiors consume too many taxes; therefore they hunger.
Unforcing Read Verse → Verse 76Man during life is tender and delicate. When he dies he is stiff and stark.
Suppleness Read Verse → Verse 77Tao of heaven resembles the stretching of a bow. The mighty it humbles, the lowly it exalts. They…
Balance Read Verse → Verse 78Nothing on earth is so weak and yielding as water, but for breaking down the firm and strong it h…
Softness Read Verse → Verse 79When a compromise is effected after a long dispute, one of the parties retains a grudge: how can …
Forgiveness Read Verse → Verse 80In a small country with few people let there be officers over tens and hundreds but not to exerci…
Smallness Read Verse → Verse 81Sincere words are not grand. Grand words are not faithful.
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