24th Verse If you stand on tiptoe, you cannot stand firmly. If you take long steps, you cannot walk far. Showing off does not reveal enlightenment. Boasting will not produce accomplishment. He who is self-righteous is not respected. He who brags will not endure. All these ways of acting are odious, distasteful. They are superfluous excesses. They are like a pain in the stomach, a tumor in the body. When walking the path of the Tao, this is the very stuff that must be uprooted, thrown out, and left behind.
