Sincere language may not be beautiful,
But beautiful language is rarely sincere.
The righteous do not have much to say,
But those who talk a lot are rarely righteous.
The deep may not be distinguished,
But the distinguished rarely have depth.
The holy man does not hoard—
The more he gives,
The more he receives.
The more he helps,
The more he succeeds.
The way of Tao is to benefit without hurting.
Thus the sage does not struggle to do good in the world,
Rather, he elects to do so with the greatest of ease.
You may order or download The Tao Te Ching here.
List of verses here