Chapter 57

以正治國，以奇用兵，以無事取天下。
吾何以知其然哉？
以此：天下多忌諱，而民彌貧；
人多利器，國家滋昏；
人多伎巧，奇物滋起；
法令滋彰，盜賊多有。
故聖人云：「我無為，而民自化；
我好靜，而民自正；
我無事，而民自富；
我無欲，而民自樸」。

Govern the state by the orthodox, wage war by the unorthodox, take the world by undertaking nothing.
How do I know it is so?
By this: the more taboos and prohibitions in the world, the poorer the people;
the more sharp tools the people have, the more benighted the state;
the more skill and cunning people have, the more strange things appear;
the more laws and orders are made plain, the more thieves and robbers abound.
So the sage says: “I do nothing, and the people transform of themselves;
I love stillness, and the people set themselves right;
I undertake nothing, and the people grow rich of themselves;
I am without desire, and the people become the uncarved block of themselves.”