Line by Line - Verse 52, Lines 6-8

Let him keep his mouth closed, and shut up the portals (of his nostrils), and all his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Keep your mouth shut,
Guard the senses,
And life is ever full.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Close the mouth
Shut the doors
Live without toil all through life
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Shut your mouth and keep still,
and your life will be full of happiness.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

How often I could skirt troubled waters if only I would shut-up! As a person who has been known throughout my life as one who possesses great wit and zany humor, my mouth brings smiles to faces and laughter to bellies, but it also lands me in imbroglios frequently.

Part of the reason my mouth gets me in trouble so often derives from my Asperger's: I never seem able to accurately determine where the boundaries of taste and decorum are located. So, it's not uncommon for me to plow miles beyond the boundaries I can't visualize to trample all over people's toes.

I am slowly learning that it is often the words not said that are of greater import than the words that are uttered.

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