Chapter 70 · Easy Words, Rarely Practised

Tao Te Ching (Legge, 1891) · chapter title added by Learn the Dao

Learn the Dao: a quiet practice for learning the thing that can’t be known.

The chapter’s first line

My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practise;

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This chapter in plain modern English — David Kooi’s rendering ↓

My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practise; but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practise them. There is an originating and all-comprehending (principle) in my words, and an authoritative law for the things (which I enforce). It is because they do not know these, that men do not know me. They who know me are few, and I am on that account (the more) to be prized. It is thus that the sage wears (a poor garb of) hair cloth, while he carries his (signet of) jade in his bosom.

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but there is no one in the world who is — missed able to know and able to practise them

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Chapter 70, in a second rendering

Easy to Get, Nobody Gets It

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

What I'm saying is easy to get and easy to do. Nobody gets it, nobody does it. The words have a source. The actions have a logic. People don't see that, so they don't get me. The fewer who get it, the more it's worth. So the steady hand wears the rough coat on the outside and keeps the good stuff out of sight.

Next · Chapter 71To know and yet (think) we do not know is the highest (attainment)…Read chapter 71 →

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