Line by Line - Verse 70, Line 6

They who know me are few,
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Those that know me are few;
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Those who understand me are few
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

And the less they understood him,
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

As I wrote in the entry for the first two lines of this Verse, I don't think that -- for most of us, at least -- we lack the understanding of the importance of the ideals we hold; our problem has more to do with consistently applying our ideals to real life. It seems that we allow our unmitigated desires to thwart our best intentions over and over again.

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