The Tao Does Nothing, Yet Nothing Is Left Undone
This chapter states the Tao Te Ching's central paradox of wu wei in its most compact form and applies it directly as a governing principle for rulers.
The chapter's opening line, "Tao constantly does nothing, yet nothing is left undone" (道常無為而無不為), is arguably the single most quoted line in the entire text, and here it appears as a governing formula rather than a general observation. Laozi tells lords and kings that if they can hold to this principle, the ten thousand things will transform themselves — order arising spontaneously rather than through command. He anticipates the objection that desire will disrupt this self-transformation: when desire stirs, the ruler should still it with the nameless uncarved block, which itself induces a kind of desirelessness. The chapter closes by predicting that once desire is stilled through stillness, the world will settle of its own accord — making non-action not passivity but a specific technique of governing by removing interference rather than adding control.
The Tao does nothing, yet nothing is left undone.
Tao Te Ching