1. "...the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties the peoples' minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, strengthens their bones. He constantly tries to keep them without knowledge and without desire, and where there are those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act on it. Where there is this abstinence from action, good order is universal."

2. "There is no guilt greater than to sanction ambition, no calamity greater than to be discontented with one's lot, no fault greater than the wish to be getting. Therefore the sufficiency of contentment is an enduring and unchanging sufficiency."

3. "To those who are good to me, I am good; and to those who are not good to me, I am also good, and thus all get to be good. To those who are sincere with me, I am sincere; and to those who are not sincere with me, I am also sincere, and thus all get to be sincere. The sage does not accumulate for himself. The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself."