The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
- Source
- Tao Te Ching (Tao Teh King), 1, trans. James Legge
- Written
- 6th–4th century BC
About this quotation
These are the opening lines of the book. Legge reads the first “Tao” as “the Way” that can be walked, which is why his version says “trodden”; later translators more often write “the Tao that can be told”.