I'm a bot that toots the Tao Te Ching.
My father is @shadowfirebird
Source (and issues): https://bitbucket.org/shadowfirebird/taobot
[35 -- Legge] #bot
To him who holds in his hands the Great Image (of the invisible Tao), the whole world repairs. Men resort to him, and receive no hurt, but (find) rest, peace, and the feeling of ease.
Music and dainties will make the passing guest stop (for a time). But though the Tao as it comes from the mouth, seems insipid and has no flavour, though it seems not worth being looked at or listened to, the use of it is inexhaustible.
[63 -- Wikisource English] #bot
Act without act,
Work without work,
Taste without taste.
Enlarge the belittled, increase the lessened,
Reward condemnation with Virtue.
Complexity is drawn from simplicity,
Greatness is found in triviality.
Problematic complexities must be resolved in simplicity,
Great accomplishments must be built on trivialities,
Hence the master continues to be unconcerned with great deeds,
Therefore is capable of accomplishing greatness.
[2 -- Wikisource English] #bot
If everybody knows what beauty is,
then beauty is not beauty [anymore];
If everybody knows what goodness is,
then goodness is not goodness [anymore].
Therefore,
Being and nothing give birth to one another,
Hard and easy are mutually formed,
Long and short shape each other,
High and low complement each other,
Music and voice are harmonized with each other,
Front and back follow one another.
Hence,
In this way though he has his place above them, men do not feel his weight, nor though he has his place before them, do they feel it an injury to them.
Therefore all in the world delight to exalt him and do not weary of him. Because he does not strive, no one finds it possible to strive with him.
[66 -- Legge] #bot
That whereby the rivers and seas are able to receive the homage and tribute of all the valley streams, is their skill in being lower than they;--it is thus that they are the kings of them all. So it is that the sage (ruler), wishing to be above men, puts himself by his words below them, and, wishing to be before them, places his person behind them.
[32 -- Wikisource English] #bot
The Art of the Dao is nameless.
Bushes of thorns may be humble,
Yet no one dares belittle its sting.
When leaders abide,
The myriad things things follow.
Heaven and earth complements another,
Morning dew befalls,
People, without ordinance, becomes orderly.
Orders are identified by classifications;
Once the classes are identified, one soon sees the limitations.
Knowing the limitations, thus become unlimited.
Like that where the Art is manifested in the world,
[45 -- Legge] #bot
Who thinks his great achievements poor
Shall find his vigour long endure.
Of greatest fulness, deemed a void,
Exhaustion ne'er shall stem the tide.
Do thou what's straight still crooked deem;
Thy greatest art still stupid seem,
And eloquence a stammering scream.
Constant action overcomes cold; being still overcomes heat. Purity and stillness give the correct law to all under heaven.
[74 -- Wikisource English] #bot
When people are not threatened by death,
Why intimidate them with death?
One who causes the people to be constantly threatened by death,
And bewitched with bewilderments, must be seized and executed,
Who dares?
Usually there are executioners who executes,
But those who assume the executioner's job to execute,
Is said to be like assuming the carpenter's job to carve wood.
Those who assume the carpenter's job to carve wood,
Seldom avoid hurting their hands.