Categoria: Tao Te Ching
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Tao Te Ching LIII
He who has the least scrap of sense, Once he has got started on the great highway has nothing to fear So long as he avoids turnings. For great highways are safe and easy. But men love by-paths. So long as Court is in order They are content to let their fields run to weed…
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Tao Te Ching LXIII
It acts without action, does without doing, Finds flavour in what is flavourless, Can make the small great and the few many, “Requites injuries with good deeds, Deals with the hard while it is still easy, With the great while it is still small.” In the governance of empire everything difficult Must be dealt with…
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Tao Te Ching LXII
Tao in the Universe is like the south-west corner in the house. It is the treasure of the good man, The support of the bad. There is a traffic in speakers of fine words; Persons of grave demeanour are accepted as gifts; Even the bad let slip no opportunity to acquire them. Therefore on the…
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Tao Te Ching LXI
A large kingdom must be like the low ground towards which all streams flows down. It must be a point towards which all things under heaven converge. Its part must be that of the female in its dealings with all things under heaven. The female by quiescence conquers the male; by quiescence gets underneath. If…
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Tao Te Ching LX
Ruling a large kingdom is indeed like cooking small fish. They who by Tao ruled all that is under heaven Did not let an evil spirit within them display its powers. Nay, it was not only that the evil spirit did not display its powers; Neither was the Sage’s good spirit used to the hurt…
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Tao Te Ching LIX
You cannot rule men nor serve heaven unless you have laid up a store; This “laying up a store” means quickly absorbing, And “quickly absorbing” means doubling one’s garnered “power”. Double your garnered power and it acquires a strength that nothing can overcome. If there is nothing it cannot overcome, it know no bounds, And…
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Tao Te Ching LVIII
When the ruler looks repressed the people will be happy and satisfied; When the rule looks lively and self-assured the people will be carping and discontented. “It is upon bad fortune that good fortune leans, upon good fortune that bad fortune rests.” But though few know it, there is a bourn where there is neither…
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Tao Te Ching LVII
“Kingdoms can only be governed if rules are kept; Battles can only be won if rules are broken.” But the adherence of all under heaven can only be won by letting-alone. How do I know that it is so? By this. The more prohibitions there are, the more ritual avoidances, The poorer the people will…
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Tao Te Ching LVI
Those who know do not speak; Those who speak do not know. Black the passages, Shut the doors, Let all sharpness be blunted, All tangles untied, All glare tempered. All dust smoothed. This is called the mysterious leveling. He who has achieved it cannot either be drawn into friendship or repelled, Cannot be benefited, cannot…
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Tao Te Ching LV
The impunity of things fraught with the “power” May be likened to that of an infant. Poisonous insects do not sting it, Nor fierce beasts seize it, Nor clawing birds maul it, Its bones are soft, its sinews weak; but its grip is strong. Not yet to have known the union of male and female,…
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Tao Te Ching LIV
What Tao plants cannot be plucked, What Tao clasps, cannot slip. By its virtue alone can one generation after another carry on the ancestrial sacrifice. Apply it to yourself and by its power you will be freed from dross. Apply it to your household and your household shall thereby have abundance. Apply it to the…
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Tao Te Ching LXIV
“What stays still is easy to hold; Before there has been an omen it is easy to lay plans. What is tender is easily torn, What is minute is easy to scatter.” Deal with things in their state of not-yet-being, Put them in order before they have got into confusion. For “the tree big as…
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Tao Te Ching LII
That which was the beginning of all things under heaven We may speak of as the “mother” of all things. He who apprehends the mother Thereby knows the sons. And he who has known the sons, Will hold all the tighter to the mother, And to the end of his days suffer no harm; “Block…
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Tao Te Ching LI
Tao gave them birth; The “power” of Tao reared them, Shaped them according to their kinds, Perfected them, giving to each its strength. Therefore Of the ten thousand things there is not one that does not worship Tao And do homage to its “power”. No mandate ever went forth that accorded to Tao the right…
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Tao Te Ching L
He who aims at life achieves death. If the “companions of life” are thirteen, So likewise are the “companions of death” thirteen. How is it that the “death-stops” in man’s life And activity are also thirteen? It is because men feed life too grossly. It is said that he who has a true hold on…
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Tao Te Ching XLIX
The Sage has no heart of his own; He uses the heart of the people as his heart. Of the good man I approve, But of the bad I also approve, And thus he gets goodness. The truthful man I believe, but the liar I also believe, And thus he gets truthfulness. The Sage, in…
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Tao Te Ching XLVIII
Learning consists in adding to one’s stock day by day; The practice of Tao consists in “subtracting day by day, Subtracting and yet again subtracting Till one has reached inactivity. But by this very inactivity Everything can be activated.” Those who of old won the adherence of all who live under heaven All did so…
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Tao Te Ching XLVII
Without leaving his door He knows everything under heaven. Without looking out of his window He knows all the ways of heaven. For the further one travels The less one knows. Therefore the Sage arrives without going, Sees all without looking, Does nothing, yet achieves everything. A. Sans sortir par la porte, on peut connaître…
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Tao Te Ching XLVI
When there is Tao in the empire The galloping steeds are turned back to fertilize the ground by their droppings. When there is not Tao in the empire War horses will be reared even on the sacred mounds below the city walls. [No lure is greater than to possess what others want,] No disaster greater…
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Tao Te Ching XLV
What is most perfect seems to have something missing; Yet its use is unimpaired. What is most full seems empty; Yet its use will never fail. What is most straight seems crooked; The greatest skill seems like clumsiness, The greatest eloquence like stuttering. Movement overcomes cold; But staying still overcomes heat. So he by his…