Sacred Texts Taoism Index
1st ed.
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If administrative restrictions be kept out of sight as much as possible, the people will become quiet, honest and sympathetic. If an administration becomes complex and officious, the people will become needy and turbulent.
Misery may be followed by happiness and happiness
may lead to misery. Who can foretell the outcome of either misery or happiness? Is there no safe guide to normality? Indeed, normality itself soon becomes abnormal, and good conditions soon become unsatisfactory.
(Why is it necessary for justice to always become injustice, and for good conditions to always pass into evil?) It is because men have been under illusion for a long, long time. Therefore, the perfect Sage, though just himself, does not reprove another's injustice; though unselfish himself, he does not reprimand the covetousness of others; though he is straightforward, he does not offend others by disagreeable assertiveness; though wise, he does not make a show of his wisdom.