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"It is easy to keep one’s grip when things are stable, It is easy to plan for a situation that has yet to happen, It is easy to snap something that is brittle, It is easy to break something up that is just beginning. Deal with a situation before it happens; Bring it under control before it gets out of hand. A tree with the girth of a person’s embrace Grows from the tiniest shoot. A pavilion nine stories high Rises from one basketful of earth. A thousand foot wall Begins from the soil under one’s feet. Those who would do things ruin them; Those who would control things lose them. Hence because the sages do things noncoercively (wuwei) They do not ruin them, And because they do not try to control things They do not lose them. The common people always ruin the things they do Just on the very brink of success. Thus it is said: If you are as careful at the end as you are at the start, You will be free of failure. It is for this reason the sages in leaving off desiring Do not prize property that is hard to come by, And in studying not to study Return to what most people have passed over. Although they are quite capable of helping all things (wanwu) follow their own course (ziran), They would not think of doing so."