Truth Upon Arrival

道德經第八十一章

Calvin & Hobbes, T.U.A.

Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (觀音), late 10th–early 11th century, 

Fletcher Fund, 1933

Size: H. 37 in. (94 cm); W. 24 in. (61 cm); D. 18 in. (45.7 cm)

Medium: Wood (foxglove) with pigments, gilding, quartz & carnelian; single woodblock construction

道德經第八十一章

信言不美，美言不信。

善者不辯，辯者不善。

知者不博，博者不知。

聖人不積，既以為人己愈有，既以與人己愈多。

天之道，利而不害；聖人之道，為而不爭。

Dào De Ching Chapter 81 ― Charles Muller

81. True words are not fancy...

True words are not fancy.

Fancy words are not true.

The good do not debate.

Debaters are not good.

The one who really knows is not broadly learned,

The extensively learned do not really know.

The sage does not hoard,

She gives people her surplus.

Giving her surplus to others she is enriched.

The way of Heaven is to help and not harm.

Copyright © Charles Muller— 2004

Dào De Ching Chapter 81 ― Arthur Waley

True words are not fine-sounding;

Fine-sounding words are not true.

The good man does not prove by argument;

Then he who proves by argument is not good.

True wisdom is different from much learning;

Much learning means little wisdom.

The Sage has no need to hoard;

When his own last scrap has been used up on behalf of others,

Lo, he has more than before!

When his own last scrap has been used up in giving to others,

Lo, his stock is even greater than before!

For heaven's way is to sharpen without cutting,

And Sage's way is to act without striving.

Dào De Ching Chapter 81 ― James Legge (The manifestation of simplicity)

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those who are skilled (in the Dao) do not dispute (about it); the disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know (the Dao) 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.