Laozi
吾言甚易知，甚易行。 天下莫能知，莫能行。 言有宗，事有君。 夫唯無知，是以不我知。 知我者希，則我者貴。 是以聖人被褐懷玉。
James Legge
My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practise; but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practise them.
There is an originating and all-comprehending (principle) in my words, and an authoritative law for the things (which I enforce). It is because they do not know these, that men do not know me.
They who know me are few, and I am on that account (the more) to be prized. It is thus that the sage wears (a poor garb of) hair cloth, while he carries his (signet of) jade in his bosom.
Victor H. Mair
My words are very easy to understand, very easy to practice. But no one is able to understand them, And no one is able to practice them. Words have authority. Affairs have an ancestry. It is simply because of their ignorance, that they do not understand me; Those who understand me are few, thus I am ennobled. For this reason, The sage wears coarse clothing over his shoulders, but carries jade within his bosom.
C. Spurgeon Medhurst
It is very easy to comprehend my teachings and to put them into practice. Yet there is no one in the world who is able either to comprehend, or to practise them. [^1]
There is an originating principle for speech, an authoritative law for conduct, [^2] but because this knowledge is lacking I am unknown. [^3] Those who know Me are few; those who imitate Me are worthy. Hence the Holy Man wears coarse garments, but carries a jewel in his bosom. [^4]
If a man be before his time, though he stand in the midst of the sun, he will appear to his contemporaries as one dwelling in darkness. The “Wisdom of God” has always been a mystery, and because the “Princes of this world” do not understand it they have in all ages “crucified the Lord of Glory.” (I Cor. ii, 7, 8.)
[^1] An analysis of the atmosphere is a different affair from its inhalation. There is a distinction between Truth and its expression. To intellectually comprehend the words in which Truth clothes herself, is not to grasp Truth herself. Truth can neither be written nor uttered. Truth is Spirit, and besides Truth there is nothing. Cf. John vii, 17.
[^2] Lit. “Words have an ancestor; affairs a ruler.”
[^3] Confucius, Lao-tzu’s great contemporary, likewise complained that he was unknown. Cf. Analects xiv, 37.
[^4] The chapter reminds us of the question of Jesus recorded in John viii, 43: “Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word.”
Ursula K. Le Guin
My words are so easy to understand, so easy to follow,
and yet nobody in the world understands or follows them.
Words come from an ancestry, deeds from a mastery: when these are unknown, so am I.
In my obscurity is my value. That’s why the wise wear their jade under common clothes.