This morning I was sitting at the kitchen table, eating my cereal and drinking my coffee, when I heard, as I do many mornings, I brief radio piece, "Word for the Wise." I perked up when, at the very end of today's (August 25, 2008) program there was a line attributed to Lao Tzu.  It didn't sound quite right to me, however.  Here is the line:

    It's a nice sentiment but it did not sound familiar to me, and the spirit of it didn't seem consistent with the general thrust of the Tao Te Ching.  I did a bit of searching.

    It is apparently fairly widely invoked – see this Google search page.   But it never seems to be attributed to a specific passage of the Tao Te Ching.   I searched the Legge translation and could not find it.  I looked through Hinton's translation and, as I suspected, found nothing that seemed remotely similar.  Now there is always the possibility that one of the many, many translations of the Tao Te Ching produces this passage, but I am now doubtful.  Perhaps it is something attributed to Lao Tzu in another source, perhaps a Buddhist corruption?  But it sure doesn't sound like the Tao Te Ching.

     So I am putting this out there and too see if anyone has a specific reference.  If not, we may have another ersatz proverb, along the lines of the old "may you live in interesting times" canard.