Chapter Nine

9 Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people’s approval
and you will be their prisoner.

Chapter Eight

8 The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to
It is content with the low places that people disdain/
Thus it is like the Tao