A speaker knows not, and he who knows speaks not
I heard this from the Old Man.
If the Old Man knows the Way,
Why five thousand words?
Laozi’s Contradiction
The Old Man is Laozi, 老子, Lao Tzu, Lao-Tze, Old Master, Chinese philosopher (6th c. BCE) and reputed author of the Tao Te Ching, 道德經, Dàodé Jīng, the philosophy of Tao, which teaches that to find The Way, we should become one with the rhythm of universe.
Laozi’s contradiction exists in the fact that being and teaching are not the same. One who speaks can not know. Happiness, wisdom and knowledge stem from Wúwéi, 無為, “not doing,” as a fish swims in the water, as a flower shaken from a tree by the wind, or a cloud that appears in the sky on a summer’s day, as seeing a loved one’s smile.
读老子
言者不如知者默
此语吾闻于老君
若道老君是知者
缘何自著五千文
dú lǎo zi
yán zhě bù zhī zhī zhě mò
cǐ yǔ wú wén yú lǎo jūn
ruò dào lǎo jūn shì zhī zhě
yuán hé zì ruò wǔ qiān wén