How cautious is the Sage, how sparing of his words! When his task is accomplished and affairs are prosperous, the people all say: "We have come to be as we are, naturally and of ourselves."
In the next age they loved and praised them. In the highest antiquity, the people did not know that they had rulers. He who loves the State as his own body is fit to be entrusted with it. He who respects the State as his own person is fit to govern it. He practises inaction, and nothing remains ungoverned. His constant object is to keep the people without knowledge and without desire, or to prevent those who have knowledge from daring to act.
Therefore the Sage, when he governs, empties their minds and fills their bellies, weakens their inclinations and strengthens their bones. Not to show them what they may covet is the way to keep their minds from disorder. Not prizing what is hard to procure keeps the people from theft. NOT exalting worth keeps the people from rivalry. The Sayings of Lao-Tzu, Lionel Giles translation, at
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