上善若水。水善利万物而不争，处众人之所恶，故几于道。
The highest good is like water.
Water benefits the ten thousand things and does not compete.
It settles in the places people turn away from.
Because of this, it is close to the way.
居善地，心善渊，与善仁，言善信，政善治，事善能，动善时。
In where it rests, it is grounded.
In its depths, it is clear.
In what it gives, it does not calculate.
In what it says, it holds.
In ordering, it can order.
In what it does, it is able.
In when it moves, it is timely.
夫唯不争，故无尤。
It does not compete — and so it is never at fault.
Reading it
Water is not passive. Water cut the Grand Canyon. What it lacks is contention — the extra friction of needing to win. Read the seven lines in the middle as a checklist rather than a poem: where you live, how deep you go, whether your giving has a calculation in it, whether your word holds, whether you can actually run the thing you are in charge of, whether you can actually do the work, and whether you move at the right time. Water passes all seven because it forces none of them.
The next time you are about to argue a point you know you are right about, wait one breath and ask whether winning this changes anything.