Chapter 64
其安易持，其未兆易謀，其脆易泮，其微易散，為之於未有，治之於未亂。
合抱之木，生於毫末；
九層之臺，起於累土；
千里之行，始於足下。
為者敗之，執者失之，是以聖人無為，故無敗，無執，故無失。
民之從事，常於幾成而敗之；
慎終如始，則無敗事。
是以聖人欲不欲，不貴難得之貨；
學不學，復眾人之所過。
以輔萬物之自然，而不敢為。
What is at rest is easy to hold; what has given no sign is easy to plan for; what is brittle is easy to break; what is minute is easy to scatter. Act on it before it exists; put it in order before there is disorder.
A tree that fills the arms grows from a shoot as fine as a hair;
a terrace nine stories high rises from heaped earth;
a journey of a thousand li starts beneath one’s feet.1
Whoever works on it ruins it; whoever grasps it loses it. That is why the sage does nothing, and so ruins nothing; grasps nothing, and so loses nothing.
When people take on a task, they always ruin it when it is nearly done.
Take as much care at the end as at the start, and nothing will be ruined.
That is why the sage desires not to desire, and does not prize goods hard to come by;
learns not to learn, and goes back to what the crowd has passed by.
So he helps the ten thousand things to be so of themselves, and does not dare to act.
Notes
1. The li was a measure of distance, about a third of a mile.