The Plain Truth
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信言不美，美言不信。善者不辯，辯者不善。知者不博，博者不知聖人不積，既以為人己愈有，既以與人己愈多。天之道，利而不害；聖人之道，為而不爭。
True words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not true. The good are not clever talkers; clever talkers are not good. Those who know are not widely read; the widely read do not know. The sage does not hoard. Having used it for others, he himself has all the more; having given it to others, he himself is all the richer. Heaven’s Way benefits and does not harm; the sage’s Way acts and does not contend.
The book’s closing chapter, on plain versus pretty words and on giving that increases rather than depletes: the final line closes on 不爭, “not contending”, which the book first raises in chapter 3 and makes the virtue of water in chapter 8.
Each pair warns against mistaking the appearance of a virtue for the virtue itself. The sage’s giving follows the same pattern: it looks like a loss and turns out to increase him.
The book’s very last line, 為而不爭 (“acts and does not contend”), returns to the same word, 爭, that closed the argument of chapter 8 near the start of the book.
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