Line by Line - Verse 65, Line 4

arises from their having much knowledge.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Because people are so clever.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Is due their excessive cleverness
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

People who know too much
can't be taught anything.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

How do we know that people are so clever? We know because we spend a great deal of our lives fooling ourselves!

Most of us are supreme masters of rationalization. If we want to do something that we know down deep we shouldn't do, our ingenious minds conjure up a multitude of excuses. We make-up spurious justifications that cleverly allow our craven wants to supersede our needs or sense of ethics and morality.

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