☯️ Chapter 81

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.

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.

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. The Internet Classics Archive by Daniel C. Stevenson, Web Atomics. C. Stevenson, Web Atomics. in any form. Direct permission requests to classics@classics.mit.edu. Translation of "The Deeds of the Divine Augustus" by Augustus is