World Lit Reader

Tao Te Ching · Laozi · Translated by James Legge

Chapter 71

71. 1. To know and yet (think) we do not know is the highest (attainment); not to know (and yet think) we do know is a disease.

2. It is simply by being pained at (the thought of) having this disease that we are preserved from it. The sage has not the disease. He knows the pain that would be inseparable from it, and therefore he does not have it.

Laozi · Translated by James Legge. Digital source: Project Gutenberg, ebook 216. This reading text follows the edition used in our interactive reader.