Tao Te Ching – Stanza 57
Govern with integrity. Weapons of war may be used cleverly, but loyalty is only won by self-restraint.
How do I know the way things are? Thus:
The more prohibitions you make, the poorer people become.
The more weapons you deploy, the greater the chaos in your land.
The more information publicized, the stranger the world becomes.
The more laws that you make, the greater the number of criminals.
Therefore the Master says:
I do little, and the people seek good by themselves.
I seek peace, and the people take care of their own problems.
I do not meddle, and the people prosper.
I restrain my desires, and the people return to the Uncarved Block.
Vernon Pope 
Amen…. I’m currently reading the Tao Te Ching. All the verses are in Wayne Dyer’s latest book, “Change Your Thinking Change Your Life. ” It includes Dyer’s thoughts on each verse. It’s not a quick read. It requires a lot of contemplation as you go. Lots of aha moments… Life changing, actually…
That sounds like a book we need to get. We’d both read it!
I can’t recommend it highly enough…….BTW, I don’t “get” the joke about the pumpkin spice….
Sorry about the spice joke – it is a bit of a reach. The Charlton Heston pic is from his movie “Soylent Green” – in which he finds out that a favorite food supplement is actually made from recycled corpses of people. The pic is from the moment he goes nuts announcing this to the community – “Soylent Green is people!”
Pumpkin Spice is the stage name of one of the members of the band “Spice Girls”. Thus – Pumpkin Spice is people.
Oh, yes, that IS funny now. I remember that movie… haha