Explore "Tao Te Ching" by Lao-Tze on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Essential de [teh] makes no show of virtue, and therefore it is really virtuous. Inferior virtue never loses sight of itself and therefore it is no longer virtue.
Essential virtue is characterized by lack of self-assertion (wu wei) and therefore is unpretentious. Inferior virtue is acting a part and thereby is only pretense.