Tao Te Ching · a short reading
A passage from Tao Te Ching. Translated by James Legge.
Chinese · English
English translation prepared automatically for the Brief. Original sources and creator credits remain the reference.
Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these (two) things are owing? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth cannot make such (spasmodic) actings last long, how much less can man!
The work and its creator
Explore the original at Project Gutenberg ↗
Creator: Laozi (traditional attribution)
Nationality / cultural background: Chinese
Work / edition: 1891 translation
Translation: James Legge · English
Historical public-domain text. Selected passage; line-end whitespace normalised. No generated quotation.
In the source: PART 1.; paragraph 70 in the selected body section
Selected for the Brief on 30 Sep 2026. This date records our selection, rather than when the work was created.
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