Sacred Text · The Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching, chapter 81
Chapter 81 of 81
“Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those who are skilled (in the Tao) do not dispute (about it); the disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know (the Tao) are not extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it. The sage does not accumulate (for himself). The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself. With all the sharpness of the Way of Heaven, it injures not; with all the doing in the way of the sage he does not strive.”
Tao Te Ching 81 · Legge
Translation: James Legge (1891), The Tâo Teh King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XXXIX, public domain, via Project Gutenberg (ebook 216). Reproduced in full and in context; chapter 1 and the chapter count (81 chapters) validated against the source before publishing. Legge’s round brackets are his own clarifying insertions.
Christian comparison
How this connects to Jesus
The Tao Te Ching closes: the sage does not accumulate, and the more he gives to others the more he has; the way of heaven is to benefit and not to injure. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35), and I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). A God whose way is to give, and never to harm.
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