In a political season, Daoist thinking on keeping the measure of things.

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Whoever thinks what matters is to get rich is incapable of renouncing salary. Whoever thinks what matters is to get famous is incapable of renouncing reputation. Whoever is too fond of sway over others is incapable of letting another man take the controls; while he holds on to them he trembles, when he loses them he pines; and one who has no mirror in which to glimpse the source of his unease is a man punished by Heaven.

Wrath and bounty, taking and giving, admonishing and teaching, sparing and killing — all these eight belong among the tools of ruling. Only the man who stays on course through the greatest alterations and has nothing to obstruct him anywhere may be deemed capable of employing them. As the saying goes, “To rule is to set in the true direction.” For the man whose heart thinks otherwise, the gate of Heaven will not open.

Chuang-tzu, The Inner Chapters, trans. A.C. Graham