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Who really said it

He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know

Written by Lao Tzu fl. 6th c. BC (traditional) · Chinese sage, reputed author of the Tao Te Ching
Verified Rights unconfirmed

This is a real passage, and the locator is exact: it opens chapter 56 of the Tao Te Ching. The Chinese reads 知者不言，言者不知 — four characters twice over, know/not-speak, speak/not-know — and it stands at the head of that chapter in the Wang Bi recension on Chinese Wikisource ↗, the standard received text. Wikiquote files this English wording under Chapter 56 ↗ as well. Two honest caveats, neither of which touches the quotation itself: Laozi is a semi-legendary figure and scholars differ on whether he existed as one man, and the translator of this particular English wording is unidentified.

Last verified 2 Oct 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know” Laozi, Tao Te Ching, chapter 56 — “知者不言，言者不知” (“He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know”). Translator of this English wording unidentified. Via quotle.info

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We couldn’t establish where this was first published, so there’s no rights status to give. Credit it as shown above — just don’t present it as public domain, and get permission for commercial or published reuse.

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In context

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Provenance

The source

Work
Tao Te Ching (道德經), chapter 56
Ascribed to
Laozi (Lao Tzu) — the traditional ascription; the text is widely held to be composite
Original
知者不言，言者不知。 — the opening lines of the chapter
Recension
Wang Bi (3rd century AD), the standard received text, read on Chinese Wikisource
Translation
Translator unidentified for this exact English wording — see the fact-check below

知者不言，言者不知。塞其兌，閉其門，挼其鋭，解其分，和其光，同其壛，是謝玄同。

The opening of chapter 56 as it stands in the Wang Bi text ↗, with Wang Bi’s own commentary stripped out. The eight characters of the famous line open the chapter; what follows is the passage they introduce, on blocking the openings and blunting the sharp points.

Tao Te Ching, Wang Bi recension, chapter 56 (Chinese Wikisource)

How we verified this

  • The chapter heading 五十六章 (“chapter 56”) in the Wang Bi recension on Chinese Wikisource ↗ is immediately followed by 知者不言 and then 言者不知, each with Wang Bi’s gloss between them. The locator is not approximate: the line opens the chapter.
  • Wikiquote’s Laozi page ↗ lists this English wording in its sourced “Chapter 56” section — not in its “Disputed” or “Misattributed” sections, which carry other lines pinned on Laozi.
  • The familiar English is not James Legge’s. Legge’s 1891 translation, free at Project Gutenberg ↗, gives chapter 56 as “He who knows (the Tao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it.” The first clause survives if you delete his brackets; the second does not.
  • Wikipedia’s article on Laozi ↗ records that traditional accounts place him in the 6th century BC state of Chu as an elder contemporary of Confucius, while modern scholars remain divided over his identity and dates — some treating him as largely or wholly legendary. This page credits him as the tradition does, and says so.

The Chinese text is far out of copyright — the Tao Te Ching is well over two thousand years old and the Wang Bi recension dates from the third century AD. The English wording shown is the open question. It is not James Legge’s 1891 rendering, which is public domain and reads differently; no source consulted names a translator for it; and a tightened twentieth-century translation could well still be in copyright. quotle.info therefore asserts no rights status for the English rather than guessing. Readers who need a translation of known provenance can use the Legge text linked above, which is free of restrictions.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

What people get wrong about this one

The quotation is genuine and in the right place, so this is not a debunk. Two things about it are nonetheless routinely overstated — who Laozi was, and whose English this is.

Laozi Documented but unverified

Every ascription of the Tao Te Ching to a single man named Laozi is traditional rather than documentary. Wikipedia summarises the scholarly position ↗: accounts place him in 6th-century BC Chu as a records keeper at the Zhou court and an elder contemporary of Confucius, but modern scholars are divided over his identity and dates, and some regard him as largely or wholly legendary. The chapter is real; the biography is thin.

Unattributed Translation, not the original

The English sentence everybody quotes has no named translator in any source checked here, including Wikiquote, which gives translators for neighbouring chapters (Arthur Waley for 52) but none for this one. Quoting it as though it were a fixed text obscures that someone, at some point, chose these particular words.

James Legge, 1891 Translator, not the author

Legge’s public-domain version reads “He who knows (the Tao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it.” People sometimes cite Legge for the crisp modern wording. He supplies the first half and not the second, so the citation is only half right.

The line really is Tao Te Ching, chapter 56, opening the chapter in the standard Wang Bi text — verifiable in the Chinese ↗. It is the English wording, not the quotation, that has no clear owner.

Context

Why it mattered

The sentence is doing something sly: it is a book about the Tao saying that whoever understands the Tao will not be explaining it to you. Chapter 56 goes on to recommend blocking the openings, shutting the door, blunting the sharp points — a programme of deliberate self-dulling that reads as advice to stop performing one’s own insight.

That is why the line has had such a long second life outside Taoism. Stripped of context it works as a rebuke to anyone talking confidently in public, which is a use the chapter supports and also, given that the chapter is itself talking, gently undercuts.

知者不言，言者不知

Read the full story

The Chinese is tighter than any English version manages: zhī zhě bù yán, yán zhě bù zhī — four characters, mirrored, with zhě doing the work of “the one who”. Nothing in it specifies what is known, which is why translators keep adding a gloss. Legge put “(the Tao)” in brackets precisely because the Chinese does not say it.

The crisp modern wording is an improvement on Legge as English and a loss as scholarship: it reads like the original’s symmetry and conceals the fact that somebody made a choice. This page keeps both in front of you for that reason, and declines to assert a copyright status for a rendering whose author it cannot name.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Tao Te Ching, Wang Bi recension (Chinese)zh.wikisource.org

The primary text. Chapter 56 opens with the eight characters of this line.
Laozi — sourced quotationsen.wikiquote.org

Files this English wording under Chapter 56, and lists separately what is disputed or misattributed.
The Tao Teh King, trans. James Legge (1891)www.gutenberg.org

A public-domain English translation — useful for comparison, and different from the popular wording.
Laozien.wikipedia.org

The traditional biography and the scholarly disagreement about whether he was one person.
Tao Te Chingen.wikipedia.org

The text itself: its recensions, dating and transmission.
James Leggeen.wikipedia.org

The Scottish sinologist whose 1891 version is the standard free translation.

The author

About Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu

fl. 6th c. BC (traditional) · Chinese sage, reputed author of the Tao Te Ching

Laozi (“Old Master”) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Tao Te Ching, the foundational text of Taoism. Traditional accounts place him in the 6th century BC state of Chu, as a keeper of archival records at the Zhou court and an elder contemporary of Confucius — with whom his sayings are frequently confused. Modern scholars are divided over his identity and dates, and many treat the book as a composite work compiled somewhat later.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Laozi, Tao Te Ching, ch. 56: “知者不言，言者不知。” Chinese text: Daode jing, Wang Bi recension, ch. 56 (Chinese Wikisource). The translator of the English wording shown is unidentified; for a public-domain rendering see The Tao Teh King, trans. James Legge, in The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 39 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), ch. 56.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know’?” Last verified 2 Oct 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/he-who-knows-does-not-speak-he-who-speaks-does-not-know/

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