Tao Te Ching Chapter 5

 

Nature is unkind:

It treats the creation like sacrificial straw-dogs.

The Sage is unkind:

He treats the people like sacrificial straw-dogs.

 

How the universe is like a bellows!

Empty, yet it gives a supply that never fails;

The more it is worked, the more it brings forth.

 

By many words is wit exhausted.

Rather, therefore, hold to the core.