Chapter 37
The Transformation Through Stillness
道常无为而无不为。
侯王若能守之，万物将自化。
化而欲作，吾将镇之以无名之朴。
无名之朴，夫亦将不欲。
不欲以静，天下将自定。
James Legge · 1891 · Public domain
1. The Tao in its regular course does nothing (for the sake of doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do.
2. If princes and kings were able to maintain it, all things would of themselves be transformed by them.
3. If this transformation became to me an object of desire, I would express the desire by the nameless simplicity.
Simplicity without a name
Is free from all external aim.
With no desire, at rest and still,
All things go right as of their will.
PART II.