Categoria: Lao Tzu
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Tao Te Ching XLIV
Fame or one’s own self, which matters to one most? One’s own self or things bought, which should count most? In the getting or the losing, which is worse? Hence he who grudges expense pays dearest in the end; He who has hoarded most will suffer the heaviest loss. Be content with what you have…
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Tao Te Ching XX
Between wei and o What after all is the difference? Can it be compared to the difference between good and bad? The saying “what others avoid I too must avoid” How false and superficial it is? All men, indeed, are wreathed in smiles, As though feasting after the Great Sacrifice, As though going up to…
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Tao Te Ching XVIII
Quando o grande Tao é esquecido, bondade e piedade aparecem. Quando a inteligência do corpo declina, esperteza e conhecimento dão um passo à frente. Quando não há paz na família, a piedade filial começa. Quando o país cai em caos, patriotismo nasce. It was when the Great Way declined That human kindness and morality arose;…
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Tao Te Ching XVII
Of the highest the people merely know that such a one exists; The next they draw near to and praise. The next they shrink from, intimidated; but revile. Truly, “It is by not believing people that you turn them into liars”. But from the Sage it is so hard at any price to get a…
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Tao Te Ching XVI
Push far enough towards the Void, Hold fast enough to Quietness, And of the ten thousand things none but can be worked on by you. I have beheld them, whither they go back. See, all things howsoever they flourish Return to the root from which they grew. This return to the root is called Quietness;…
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Tao Te Ching XV
Of old those that were the best officers of Court Had inner natures subtle, abstruse, mysterious, penetrating, Too deep to be understood. And because such men could not be understood I can but tell of them as they appeared to the world: Circumspect they seemed, like one who in winter crosses a stream, Watchful, as…
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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…
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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 XXI
Such the scope of the All-pervading Power. That it alone can act through the Way. For the Way is a thing impalpable, incommensurable. Incommensurable, impalpable. Yet latent in it are forms; Impalpable, incommensurable Yet within it are entities. Shadowy it is and DIM; Yet within it there is a force, Is none the less efficacious.…
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Tao Te Ching XLIII
What is of all things most yielding Can overwhelm that which is of all things most hard. Being substanceless it can enter even where is no space; That is how I know the value of action that is actionless. But that there can be teaching without words, Value in action that is actionless, Few indeed…
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Tao Te Ching XLII
Tao gave birth to the One; The One gave birth successively to two things, Three things, up to ten thousand. These ten thousand creatures cannot turn their backs to the shade Without having the sun on their bellies, And it is on this blending of the breaths that their harmony depends. To be orphaned, needy,…
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Tao Te Ching XLI
When the man of highest capacities hears Tao He does his best to put it into practice. When the man of middling capacity hears Tao He is in two minds about it. When the man of low capacity hears Tao He laughs loudly at it. If he did not laugh, it would not be worth…
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Tao Te Ching XL
In Tao the only motion is returning; The only useful quality, weakness. For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being, Being itself is the product of Not-being. A. Le retour en arrière [vers le Principe], est la forme de mouvement caractéristique de ceux qui se conforment au Principe. L’atténuation est l’effet que…
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Tao Te Ching XIX
Banish wisdom, discard knowledge, And the people will be benefited a hundredfold. Banish human kindness, discard morality, And the people will be dutiful and compassionate. Banish skill, discard profit, And thieves and robbers will disappear. If when these three things are done they find life too plain and unadorned, Then let them have accessories; Give…
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Tao Te Ching XIV
Because the eye gazes but can catch no glimpse of it, It is called elusive. Because the ear listens but cannot hear it, It is called the rarefied. Because the hand feels for it but cannot find it, It is called the infinitesimal. These three, because they cannot be further scrutinized, Blend into one, Its…
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Tao Te Ching XIII
Favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness; High rank hurts keenly as our bodies hurt.” What does it mean to say that favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness? It means that when a rule’s subjects get it they turn distraught, When they lose it they turn distraught. That is what…
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Tao Te Ching XII
The fives colours confuse the eye, The fives sounds dull the ear, The five tastes spoil the palate. Excess of hunting and chasing Makes minds go mad. Products that are hard to get Impede their owner’s movements. Therefore the Sage Considers the belly not the eye. Truly, “he rejects that but takes this”. A. La…