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57
Govern a country with ordinary acts.
Wage a war with extraordinary acts.
But win a world with absence of acts.
How does one know this?
By what is deep within.
The more the proscriptions,
the poorer the people.
The craftier the tools,
the greater the confusion.
The smarter the skillful,
the sooner the strangeness.
The harsher the laws,
the more men will break them.
Wise men say:
I do not intervene
and the people tend themselves.
I cherish stillness
and the people settle their differences.
I do not engage in exchange
and the people prosper.
I seek to be free from want
and the people on their own become
authentic unhewn blocks.
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