If a good man is treated by others as worthy, it serves no purpose to use an insult.
Those without self-knowledge cannot be insulted.
The ten thousand rivers and seas are so
with each other. The taoist may be disliked, but he can not be insulted.
Whichever way a person says his heart is,
All the people of the world will regard it favorably.
Whether he is good or bad, the people of the world will give him thanks.
other readings further drafts from the same generation
deeper strata where the meaning thins
the original
1. He who knows (the Tao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he
who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it.
2. He (who knows it) will keep his mouth shut and close the portals
(of his nostrils). He will blunt his sharp points and unravel the
complications of things; he will attemper his brightness, and bring
himself into agreement with the obscurity (of others). This is called
'the Mysterious Agreement.'
3. (Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; he is
beyond all consideration of profit or injury; of nobility or
meanness:--he is the noblest man under heaven.