Lao Tzu Quotes on Politics
Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching offers one of the most distinctive visions of government in world philosophy, and the quotes gathered here present it. Its ideal is rule so light and unobtrusive that the people scarcely notice it: a leader is best when people barely know he exists, so that when his work is done they say we did it ourselves. Lao Tzu was deeply sceptical of heavy-handed governance, holding that the proliferation of laws and prohibitions multiplies rather than reduces disorder, since the more laws and regulations exist, the more thieves and brigands appear. He traced hardship directly to misrule, observing that people starve when the ruler taxes too heavily. Drawn from the Tao Te Ching, these passages present the Taoist politics of wu wei, effortless action and minimal interference.
Quotes
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“A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 17 -
“When men lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster.”
translated by Gia Fu Feng -
“People are difficult to be ruled, Because the ruler governs with personal desire and establishes too many laws to confuse the people.”
Chapter 75 -
“let people return to the use of knots and be satisfied with their food and pleased with their clothing and content with their homes and happy with their customs let there be another state so near people hear its dogs and chickens but live out their lives without making a visit”
Chapter 80 | translated by Red Pine -
“The more prohibitions that are imposed on people, The poorer the people become. The more laws and regulations that exist, The more thieves and brigands appear. The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”
Chapter 57 | Variant translation: The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people will be. -
“People starved because the ruler taxed too heavily.”
Chapter 75