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Tao Te Ching · 67 of 81

Chapter 67

All the world says that, while my Tao is great, it yet appears to be inferior (to other systems of teaching). Now it is just its greatness that makes it seem to be inferior. If it were like any other (system), for long would its smallness have been known!

But I have three precious things which I prize and hold fast. The first is gentleness; the second is economy; and the third is shrinking from taking precedence of others.

With that gentleness I can be bold; with that economy I can be liberal; shrinking from taking precedence of others, I can become a vessel of the highest honour. Now-a-days they give up gentleness and are all for being bold; economy, and are all for being liberal; the hindmost place, and seek only to be foremost;—(of all which the end is) death.

Gentleness is sure to be victorious even in battle, and firmly to maintain its ground. Heaven will save its possessor, by his (very) gentleness protecting him.

Asked of Guide

Why does Lao Tzu praise gentleness, economy, and taking the hindmost?

Lao Tzu names three “precious things”: gentleness, economy, and shrinking from taking precedence. He shows how each quality converts into a strength—gentleness allows one to be bold, economy to be liberal, and yielding to receive highest honour—so these traits make the Tao effective precisely because they hide power under humility.

He insists those who seek the opposite—brash boldness, conspicuous generosity, and striving to be first—meet ruin; gentleness even wins in battle and attracts Heaven’s protection. This echoes Chuang Tzu’s counsel about victory without swagger and Rumi’s praise for moral quietude as true strength.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.

Echoes elsewhere

Chuang Tzu · Taoism68. He who in (Tâo's) wars has skill Assumes no martial port; He who fights with most good will To rage makes no resort. He who vanquishes yet still Keeps from his foes apart; He w Paradise Lost · Christianityhe stood Among the mightiest, bent on highest deeds, And thus his own undaunted heart explores:— "'O Heaven! that such resemblance of the Highest Should yet remain, where faith and The Mesnevi of Rumi & The Acts of the Adepts · Sufismthrough the moral splendour lent them by the Lord; Not bound together quite, nor yet in disaccord. The man whose soul is influenced by one of those, Like meteors, still shall drive