Ruben Vardanyan Shares a Passage from Lao Tzu

Ruben Vardanyan Shares a Passage from Lao Tzu

In one of his recent phone conversations with his family, Ruben Vardanyan asked to share the following words from Lao Tzu:

“One who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm;
One who takes the longest strides does not walk the fastest.
One who shows himself is not conspicuous;
One who considers himself right is not illustrious;
One who boasts achieves no merit;
One who vaunts himself does not endure.
From the point of view of the Way, these are ‘excessive food and useless excrescences.’
As there are Things that detest them, he who has the Way does not abide in them.”

— Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 24, translated by D. C. Lau (Penguin Classics, 1963)