Tao Te Ching Chapter 58

 

When the government is lazy and dull,

Its people are unspoiled;

When the government is efficient and smart,

Its people are discontented.

 

Disaster is the avenue of fortune,

(And) fortune is the concealment for disaster.

Who would be able to know its ultimate results?

(As it is), there would never be the normal.

But the normal would (immediately) revert to the deceitful.

And thegood revert to the sinister.

Thus long has mankind gone astray!

 

Therefore the Sage is square (has firm principles),

but not cutting (sharp-cornered),

Has integrity but does not hurt (others),

Is straight, but not high-handed,

Bright, but not dazzling.