In the highest antiquity, the people did not know that there were rulers. In the next age they loved them and praised them. In the next they feared them; in the next they despised them. |
Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power. |
The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. |
The more rules and regulations, The more thieves and robbers there will be. |
The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors. It is through this that they suffer famine. |
Try to make people moral, and you lay the groundwork for vice. |
A government can be compared to our lungs. Our lungs are best when we don't realize they are helping us breathe. It is when we are constantly aware of our lungs that we know they have come down with an illness. |
Good Government is not intrusive the people are hardly aware of it; the next best is felt yet loved; then comes that which is known and
feared; the worst government is hated. |
Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking. |
To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease. |
Without law or compulsion, men would dwell in harmony. |
The more laws and restrictions there are, the poorer people become. |
The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself. |
With virtue and quietness one may conquer the world. |
