Chapter 81 · Sincere Words Are Not Fine

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

Sincere words are not fine;

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

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.

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With all the sharpness of the Way — missed of Heaven it injures not

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Chapter 81, in a second rendering

The Steady Hand Doesn't Hoard

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

True words aren't pretty and pretty words aren't true. Good people don't argue and the arguers aren't good. The ones who actually know aren't the ones showing off how much they've read. The steady hand doesn't hoard. The more they spend on other people, the more they've got. The more they hand over, the more comes back. The sky's way is to help and not harm. The steady hand's way is to do the work and not turn it into a fight. That's about where it lands.

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