Dao De Jing 8
The highest virtue is like
water.
Water’s virtue comes from its benefit to the ten thousand things;
without striving against this, it settles in the low place all men despise, and
so is like the Dao.
The virtue of a
residence comes from its site,
that of the mind comes from depth,
that of
friendship from kindness,
that of words from truth,
that of
governing from promoting peace and order,
that of work from competence,
that of
action from timeliness.
In the absence of conflict there is no blame.
Laozi, 道德經
Translation by John
Hayes
The translation is is
licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Unlike with my original
poetry & poetry translations, I don’t asset a copyright claim on my
translation of the Dao De Jing. It may be freely used under the terms of
the Creative Commons license.
Image links to its source
on Wiki Commons:
“Scholar by a Waterfall” –
Ma Yuan (Chinese, active ca. 1190–1225), Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279): ink
& color on silk
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