Line by Line - Verse 76, Line 9

Therefore the place of what is firm and strong is below,
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

The hard and strong will fall.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

The big and forceful occupy a lowly position
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Here's a useful saying:
The harder they come,
the harder they fall.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

In the US -- as is true throughout the world -- we build dams to "control" rivers. Many of our our dams are mammoth structures of steel and concrete. There job is to hold back the water and yet the water constantly eats away at them. If not for remedial efforts, every dam eventually will fail!

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