Chapter 57

A state can be governed by rules; weapons can be wielded with clever skill; but the world is won only through non-action and freedom from agenda.

How do I know this? By these facts: the more prohibitions there are in a kingdom, the poorer the people grow; the more tools the people have to better themselves, the more disorder spreads through state and family; the more clever skills people master, the more strange inventions appear; the more laws are put on display, the more thieves and robbers there are.

So a sage has said: “I do nothing, and the people transform themselves; I love stillness, and the people set themselves right; I make no effort, and the people grow rich on their own; I have no ambition, and the people return on their own to simplicity.”