What is at rest is easy to hold. What has not shown up is easy to take into account. What is frail is easy to break. What is vague is easy to dispel.
Do it before it exists; govern it before there's disorder.
The most massive tree grows from a sprout; the highest building rises from a pile of earth; a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Those who contrive spoil it; those who cling lose it. Thus sages contrive nothing, and so spoil nothing. They cling to nothing, and so lose noting.
Therefore people's works are always spoiled on the verge of completion. Be as careful of the end as of the beginning, and nothing will be spoiled.
Thus sages want to have no wants; they do not value goods hard to get. They learn not learning to recover from people's excesses, thereby to assist the naturalness of all beings, without daring to contrive.