Nature Does Not Use Many Words
Points to the brevity of storms and whirlwinds in nature as proof that even heaven and earth's most forceful expressions are short-lived, and draws a lesson about excessive talk and effort.
Chapter 23 opens with a compact claim: "to use words rarely is natural," setting up nature itself as the chapter's supporting evidence. "A whirlwind does not last a whole morning; a sudden rainstorm does not last a whole day," it continues — even heaven and earth, the most powerful forces imaginable, cannot sustain their most intense expressions indefinitely, so what chance does a person's forced, sustained effort have of outlasting nature's own limits? The chapter then extends the point to human alignment: those who follow the Tao become identified with the Tao, those who follow virtue become identified with virtue, and those who abandon both become identified with loss — in each case, the Tao or virtue or loss itself is described as welcoming those who match its own nature, a kind of resonance rather than reward. The chapter's closing line — "one who lacks trust will not be trusted" — connects the whole passage back to speech: words spoken too freely, like storms that rage too long, lose their power and their credibility precisely because they aren't rare or restrained enough to be believed.
A whirlwind does not last a whole morning.
Tao Te Ching
Written about in
- What Taoism says about what to say and what to leave unsaid
Chapter 23 argues from weather: a whirlwind does not last a whole morning, a sudden rainstorm does not last a whole day, so nothing held at full force lasts, including your talking. Its closing line ties this to credibility — one who lacks trust will not be trusted — because words spent too freely stop being believed.