Chapter 24 Dyer
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 Dao this the very stuff that must be uprooted, thrown out, and left behind.
Chapter 24 Henricks
1. One who boasts is not established;
2. One who shows himself off does not become prominent;
3. One who puts himself on display does not brightly shine;
4. One who brags about himself gests no credit;
5. One who praises himself does not long endure.
6. In the Way, such things are called:
7. "Surplus food and redundant action."
8. And with things—there are those who hate them.
9. Therefore, the one with the Way in them does not dwell.
Chapter 24 Lau
He who tiptoes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.
He who shows himself is not conspicuous;
He who considers himself right is not illustrious;
He who brags will have no merit;
He who boasts will not endure.
From the point of view of the way these are 'excessive food and useless excresences'.
As there are Things that detest them, he who has the way does not abide in them.
Chapter 24 Wu
One on tip-toe cannot stand.
One astride cannot walk.
One who displays himself does not shine.
One who justifies himself has no glory.
One who boasts of his own ability has no merit.
One who parades his own success will not endure.
In Tao these things are called "unwanted food and extraneous growths,"
Which are loathed by all things.
Hence, a man of Tao does not set his heart upon them.