The Tao Te Ching is an important piece of philosophy and should be required reading for just about anyone. The book itself is short and easily read, with very tiny chapters that encapsulate a theme or topic, like Virtue or Compassion.

It's simple, and a lot of it can sound like fortune cookie fodder -- because a lot of fortune cookies use these words.

More important for this review is the edition -- this is one of the Kindle Unlimited versions, and is actually a modified version of a translated edition. The modifier is a prolific writer, mostly of other people's works, many of which are related to Christianity. He's a Goodreads author -- it might be best to look over his history before choosing this particular edition.

That said, I thought it read well and there were few typos. I'll have to re-read it from a regular translator to see if there are any differences to note.

This text is so impenetrable that the much-smarter-than-me Ursula K LeGuin admits in footnotes that even she doesn't get parts. After reading it for years, studying it and translating it via study. So, naturally I didn't understand all of it. Saying that, there were parts that were resounding truths and addressed significant questions of human social and political predicaments. I'll hold onto it, I think. It reads like a series of koans, but by reading (and in the future, re-reading) these words, I feel like maybe (just maybe) someday, I'll be wise enough to contemplate it more completely.

One of the finest spiritual works. Loved it.

(I’m not trying to sound like an annoying Reddit atheist I swear I’m just some lady disillusioned by the religion I grew up in)

This is so refreshing and brief in a way the Bible doesn’t feel to me. I guess I’m just not religious like I used to be, but the Tao Te Ching is manageable. It’s digestible. It doesn’t require jumping through hoops to make it applicable to me. Idk, it sounds like I’m trying to replace the Bible, but I’m just looking for something with more personal merit. I see a lot of similarities between this and the Bible, and it’s interesting to see these ideas being shared in such different areas.

The Bible did what it needed to do for me at the time, and I think the Tao Te Ching is doing what it needs to do for me now.

"do your work, then quietly step back"

It feels almost wrong to rate this - its meaning comes from how we interpret it, it's a guide and a nudge

My version is translated by Brian Browne Walker, but I can't find its listing on here

Probably the most influential book I've ever read. 1000 words.

"the tao that can be told, is not the eternal tao".