THE TAO TEH KING, OR THE TAO AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS
☯ The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao ☯
Translated by James Legge
Book 2
Chapter 74
(1) The people do not fear death; to what purpose is it to (try to)
frighten them with death? If the people were always in awe of death,
and I could always seize those who do wrong, and put them to death,
who would dare to do wrong?
(2) There is always One who presides over the infliction death. He
who would inflict death in the room of him who so presides over it
may be described as hewing wood instead of a great carpenter. Seldom
is it that he who undertakes the hewing, instead of the great carpenter,
does not cut his own hands!