Chapter 26. Virtue of worthiness
Lightness is based weight, movement is based on rest.
This is why the wise one never loses his worthiness but retains his peace from day to day.
Even if he owns glorious palaces he would stay in them peacefully and unattached to them.
Woe, the king, lord of many carriages behaves frivolously in in his kingdom!
With his light-mindedness he loses the trust of his people and with his unstableness his kingdom.¹
- Mr. Ervast: ‘Both “high” and “low” would appear to benefit from Laozi’s advice.”
Own translation from 1925 Finnish translation by Pekka Ervast (ISBN 951-8995-01-X) with kind permission of Ruusu-Ristin Kirjallisuusseura ry.