Laozi · Complete work
Chapter 63
Chapter 63 of 81. Read it here for reference, or continue through the entire work without leaving the reader.
Open the complete readerOriginal Classical Chinese
為無為，事無事，味無味。大小多少，報怨以德。圖難於其易，為大於其細；天下難事，必作於易，天下大事，必作於細。是以聖人終不為大，故能成其大。夫輕諾必寡信，多易必多難。是以聖人猶難之，故終無難矣。
Mouseia
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the original source for fidelity, modern clarity, beauty, symbolism, and structure.
Do without doing, attend to having no affairs, taste what has no flavor.Regard the great as small and the many as few; repay resentment with virtue.Plan for the difficult while it is easy; undertake the great while it is minute;The difficult affairs under Heaven must arise from what is easy; the great affairs under Heaven must arise from what is minute.Thus the sage never acts as great, and therefore can accomplish greatness.Light promises must be scant in trust; finding much easy must bring much difficulty.Thus the sage treats things as difficult, and therefore in the end has no difficulty.
OpenTao
Complete CC BY 4.0 translation made directly from the received Chinese text; source line structure preserved.
Act without forcing; attend to affairs without making an affair of them; savor what has no flavor.See the small as great, the few as many; answer resentment with integrity.Plan for what is difficult while it is still easy; work on what is great while it is still minute;Every difficult undertaking under heaven must begin while still easy; every great undertaking must begin while still minute.So the sage never sets out to do great things, and for that very reason can accomplish the great.Whoever promises lightly will surely be little trusted; whoever treats many things as easy will surely meet many difficulties.Thus the sage treats even the easy as difficult, and so in the end encounters no difficulty.
James Legge (1891)
Complete public-domain translation made directly from the original source text.
1. (It is the way of the Tao) to act without (thinking of) acting; to conduct affairs without (feeling the) trouble of them; to taste without discerning any flavour; to consider what is small as great, and a few as many; and to recompense injury with kindness.
2. (The master of it) anticipates things that are difficult while they are easy, and does things that would become great while they are small. All difficult things in the world are sure to arise from a previous state in which they were easy, and all great things from one in which they were small. Therefore the sage, while he never does what is great, is able on that account to accomplish the greatest things.
3. He who lightly promises is sure to keep but little faith; he who is continually thinking things easy is sure to find them difficult. Therefore the sage sees difficulty even in what seems easy, and so never has any difficulties.